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Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidivism

By Jeralyn, Section Juvenile Offenders
Posted on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 11:27:26 PM EST
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A new study by the Coalition for Juvenile Justice finds that recidivism is higher among teenagers who have been charged as adults for their crimes.

Juvenile advocates say a decadelong crackdown on teenage crime has backfired by depriving youthful offenders, who disproportionately are members of minority groups, of adequate counseling, drug treatment, and education.

A survey of several states with large numbers of youths in the adult system found increased recidivism among youths who are treated as adults.

In other words, "Adult time for adult crime" is a failure. The report is called, "''Childhood on Trial: The Failure of Trying and Sentencing Youth in Adult Criminal Court." [link via CrimProf Blog.]

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    Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidivism | 15 comments (15 topical)
    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 12:11:24 AM EST
    Is it really true that Michael Jackson will get to serve time in juvenile detention?

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 01:01:03 AM EST
    Facts, schmacts, the Bible says to stone disobedient children and so clearly no punishment can be too great and/or ineffective.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#3)
    by Johnny on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 01:08:27 AM EST
    TRR- you made me cough scrambled eggs out my nose this time, dang! You hit it just right though-I can hear the wingnut losers screaming right now-"if we treated then even harsher, then it would work! we can't let them off, that is IMMORAL!!!!!!!!!"

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 06:33:16 AM EST
    The article says that many of these kids are going to adult jails for nonviolent crimes, but there is no supporting evidence offered for this. Anyone know what the breakdown is for violent t- nonviolent crimes in this study?

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#5)
    by roy on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 08:26:29 AM EST
    This sort of study is prone to trouble. Success can look like failure. Let's say that historically, X% of juvenile criminals reoffend. Look at the juveniles who are most likely to reoffend; they have an expected recidivism rate of Y%, where Y > X. If you instead try that group as adults, they have a recidivism rate of Z%. If Z is less than Y, the you've successfully reduced recidivism for juveniles tried as adults. If Z is less than Y, and Z is greater than X, then it looks like a failure despite being a success. So if those in charge are good at only trying the worst juvenile criminals as adults, success can look like failure. The CJJ folks seem like smart people, and I haven't read the report, so I might just be wasting photons.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 08:32:21 AM EST
    Its the system with its hate for people. ask why? do we have so many drugs IN SCHOOLS! and why is crime happening in our cities and why are our schools coming apart and why is it like this? hey, "ask why" and do the research and for you who think the system is ok as it is, checkout the facts at the FBI.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#7)
    by Dadler on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 09:31:55 AM EST
    sending an adolescent (with the still developing brain that goes along with it) to adult prison is a death sentence. my kid brains were scrambled enough by domestic abuse and chaos, i can only imagine what adult incarceration would've done. barbaric.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 10:24:15 AM EST
    Isn't it odd America holds children responsible as adults but doesn't hold Bushbag responsible as an adult.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#9)
    by kdog on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 10:49:19 AM EST
    Odd indeed. Responsibility for ones actions applies only to the little people. Guys like Bush are rarely held responsible.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 02:06:57 PM EST
    A new study by the Coalition for Juvenile Justice finds that recidivism is higher among teenagers who have been charged as adults for their crimes. Well... there are some kids that are in trouble at a very early age and manage to stay in trouble most of their adult lives too. We have all seen them and perhaps know some of them. They were trouble makers in school and grew up the same... Now the question to you all is this... Do we (can we) blame the government for this? Or is it more a lack of parental supervision? I think it's the latter. But I know most of you don't (won't) take responsibility for your actions.. there must always be someone else to blame.... right? My kids are listening to that bad rap music... I know...I'll get the government to put labels on so my kids can't buy them,... yeah.. that's the ticket. Now I can go back to watching TV.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#11)
    by roy on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 02:25:32 PM EST
    Do we (can we) blame the government for this? Or is it more a lack of parental supervision?
    Approach A: Try juvenile criminals as juveniles Approach B: Try juvenile criminals as adults. The study claims to show that Approach B produces objectively worse results than Approach A. If true, that means we do (or can) "blame the government" for making the problem worse by pursuing Approach B. This would be so regardless of the original cause of juvenile crime.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#12)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 03:07:23 PM EST
    Juveniles who commit the worst crimes are sometimes tried as adults. The rest of them are tried as juveniles. So we have selected for the worst cases to put into the adult court. Think there'd be a difference in recidivism if they were all tried as juvies and we kept records by heinousness of the crime? You bet.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#13)
    by jondee on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 03:50:26 PM EST
    You bet mister. I say try em all as adults - in lieu of something akin to the black laws of the 18th cent. - we need to purge society of the less-than-fit and create more breathing room for c students from Yale and thier obedient servents like you.

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#14)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 05:36:45 PM EST
    Jondee. To what are you responding and what point are you trying to make?

    Re: Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidi (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Mar 17, 2005 at 06:24:27 AM EST
    If one does know history then they also know that America invented the incarceration system as we know it based on Quaker understandings of repentance of sin. This is not to say that we were the first country to lock anyone up, but we did change the way it worked. The original American Quaker idea was to lock the sinner into a room and allow them to do penitence; hence the word penitentiary. It was hoped that the sinner would find God in the cell, I suppose he/she would just appear, and then they would come out of prison a reformed person full of the love God has for mankind and would renounce sin. So my question is...does it work? Many other countries have tried the American model andd rejected it as a failed attempt at corrective measures. They have evolved into other methods of punishment that actually seem to work. I'll leave it to those that disagree to not look up any details of my story, but to instead Ditto-head an answer straight out of Rush's Fecal Orifice. Speaking of Rush, if anyone believes his line I ask that they buy the papers he reads and listen to him as he makes comments about the contents and read along wth him. I have done this a few times and not once has the man told the truth about what he reads. He injects storylines that are not present, he distorts the stated facts and leaves the listener with the impression that he went to school beyond the third grade.

    Report: Trying Kids as Adults Increases Recidivism | 15 comments (15 topical)