News Finding: "These results suggest that processing juveniles in the adult system may not uniformly increase offending, as many scholars have thought, and may actually reduce offending in some circumstances," Loeffler said.
Paper Finding: These results suggest that processing juveniles in the adult system may not uniformly increase offending and may reduce offending in some circumstances.
News Context: The researchers attributed this finding to a combination of enhanced deterrence and incapacitation in the adult justice system. "These results suggest that processing juveniles in the adult system may not uniformly increase offending, as many scholars have thought, and may actually reduce offending in some circumstances," Loeffler said. The results of Loeffler and Grunwald's study, which differed from some of the early empirical literature examining the effects of processing juveniles as adults, adds to a growing number of studies observing that offending among older juveniles is relatively insensitive to the exact legal system in which they are prosecuted.
Paper Context: Based on the rapid onset and limited change in size of these effects over the duration of a 4-year follow-up, and based on the concentration of the effects within a sub-group having the lowest risk of incarceration, we attribute this finding to a combination of enhanced deterrence and incapacitation in the adult justice system. These results suggest that processing juveniles in the adult system may not uniformly increase offending and may reduce offending in some circumstances. Implications for recent state-level changes to the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system are discussed.