However, Pennsylvania s exclusion legislation has had little overall impact on either the number of juveniles handled in criminal court or the proportion incarcerated in adult correctional facilities. There was also an underlying assumption that transfer decisionmaking by juvenile court judges in Pennsylvania tended to favor juveniles and that decisionmaking by criminal court judges under the new provisions would be different. However, this study found that, in Pennsylvania, the decisionmaking process followed by criminal court judges regarding decertification was much the same as that followed by juvenile court judges regarding waiver. Comparisons between waived and nonwaived juveniles must be made carefully. Researchers, policymakers, and others who make use of research results must keep in mind that groups of waived and nonwaived juveniles differ in many respects.
Simple comparisons are likely to be misleading and, thus, are inappropriate.
Careful matching of waived and nonwaived juveniles on multiple characteristics, although often difficult, is virtually a prerequisite to any such comparisons. Researchers should include such characteristics as matching variables when attempting to compare juvenile and criminal court processing of juvenile offenders and their case outcomes.