This article assesses change in juvenile formal social control in the United States from 1985 to 2014. By combining national juvenile arrest and court data, I compute and analyze arrest-adjusted trends in court processing and case dispositions. Results indicate that the juvenile justice system now operates with a wider net of control through stronger connections with law enforcement and increased use of less-severe dispositions, especially those dispensed prior to adjudication. This increased exposure to formal system involvement, even if less severe, nonetheless raises concerns for youth and their social and developmental outcomes of system involvement.
AdamsBAddieS (2012) Delinquency Cases Waived to Criminal Court, 2009. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
2.
AebiMFDelgrandeNMarguetY (2015) Have community sanctions and measures widened the net of the European criminal justice systems?Punishment & Society17(5): 575–597.
3.
AinsworthJE (1996) The court’s effectiveness in protecting the rights of juveniles in delinquency cases. The Future of Children6: 64–74.
4.
AizerADoyleJJJr (2015) Juvenile incarceration, human capital, and future crime: Evidence from randomly assigned judges. The Quarterly Journal of Economics130(2): 759–803.
5.
ApelRSweetenG (2010) The impact of incarceration on employment during the transition to adulthood. Social Problems57(3): 448–479.
6.
AugustynMBLoughranTA (2017) Juvenile waiver as a mechanism of social stratification: A focus on human capital. Criminology55(2): 405–437.
7.
AustinJKrisbergB (1981) NCCD research review: Wider, stronger, and different nets: The dialectics of criminal justice reform. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency18(1): 165–196.
8.
BazemoreG (1997) What’s ‘new’ about the balanced approach?Juvenile and Family Court Journal48(1): 1–22.
9.
BernardTJKurlychekM (2010) The Cycle of Juvenile Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10.
BishopDM (2000) Juvenile offenders in the adult criminal justice system. Crime and Justice27: 81–167.
11.
ButtsJA (2016) Critical diversion. Criminology & Public Policy15(3): 983–989.
12.
ButtsJAMearsDP (2001) Reviving juvenile justice in a get-tough era. Youth & Society33(2): 169–198.
13.
CateS (2016) Devolution, not decarceration: The limits of juvenile justice reform in Texas. Punishment & Society18(5): 578–609.
14.
CaudillJWMorrisRGSayedSEYunMDeLisiM (2013) Pathways through the juvenile justice system: Predictors of formal disposition. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice11(3): 183–195.
15.
CookPJLaubJH (2002) After the epidemic: Recent trends in youth violence in the United States. Crime and Justice29: 1–37.
16.
CoxA (2018) Trapped in a Vice: The Consequences of Confinement for Young People. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
17.
DeckerSH (1985) A systematic analysis of diversion: Net widening and beyond. Journal of Criminal Justice13(3): 207–216.
FaderJJ (2013) Falling Back: Incarceration and Transitions to Adulthood Among Urban Youth. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
20.
FaganJ (1996) The comparative advantage of juvenile versus criminal court sanctions on recidivism among adolescent felony offenders. Law & Policy18(1–2): 77–114.
21.
FeeleyMM (1979) The Process Is the Punishment: Handling Cases in a Lower Criminal Court. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
22.
FeldBC (1999) Bad Kids: Race and the Transformation of the Juvenile Court. New York: Oxford University Press.
23.
GalvinMAKurlychekMCKleimanM (2023) The collateral cost of juvenile adjudications in adult sentencing guideline recommendations: The contribution of policy to cumulative disadvantage. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. Epub ahead of print 16 February. DOI: 10.1177/00224278231157354.
24.
GattiUTremblayREVitaroF (2009) Iatrogenic effect of juvenile justice. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry50(8): 991–998.
25.
GilmanABWalkerSCVickKSanfordR (2021) The impact of detention on youth outcomes: A rapid evidence review. Crime & Delinquency67(11): 1792–1813.
26.
GreenwoodPW (1996) Responding to juvenile crime: Lessons learned. The Future of Children6: 75–85.
27.
GriffinPAddieSAdamsBFirestineK (2011) Trying Juveniles as Adults: An Analysis of State Transfer Laws and Reporting. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
28.
HjalmarssonR (2008) Criminal justice involvement and high school completion. Journal of Urban Economics63(2): 613–630.
29.
HockenberrySPuzzancheraC (2020) Juvenile Court Statistics 2018. Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice.
30.
HuebnerBM (2005) The effect of incarceration on marriage and work over the life course. Justice Quarterly22(3): 281–303.
KirkDSSampsonRJ (2013) Juvenile arrest and collateral educational damage in the transition to adulthood. Sociology of education86(1): 36–62.
34.
Kohler-HausmannI (2013) Misdemeanor justice: Control without conviction. American Journal of Sociology119(2): 351–393.
35.
Kohler-HausmannI (2018) Misdemeanorland: Criminal Courts and Social Control in an Age of Broken Windows Policing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
36.
KurlychekMCJohnsonBD (2019) Cumulative disadvantage in the American criminal justice system. Annual Review of Criminology2: 291–319.
37.
LoughranTAMulveyEPSchubertCAFaganJPiqueroARLosoyaSH (2009) Estimating a dose-response relationship between length of stay and future recidivism in serious juvenile offenders. Criminology47(3): 699–740.
38.
McCormackPDPattavinaATraceyPE (2017) Assessing the coverage and representativeness of the National Incident-Based Reporting System. Crime & Delinquency63(4): 493–516.
39.
MahoneyAR (1974) The effect of labeling upon youths in the juvenile justice system: A review of the evidence. Law & Society Review8(4): 583–614.
40.
MaloneyDRomigDArmstrongT (1988) Juvenile Probation: The Balanced Approach. Reno, NV: National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.
41.
MearsDP (2002) Sentencing guidelines and the transformation of juvenile justice in the 21st century. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice18(1): 6–19.
42.
MearsDP (2006) Exploring state-level variation in juvenile incarceration rates: Symbolic threats and competing explanations. The Prison Journal86(4): 470–490.
43.
MearsDPKuchJJLindseyAMSiennickSEPestaGBGreenwaldMABlombergTG (2016) Juvenile court and contemporary diversion: Helpful, harmful, or both?Criminology & Public Policy15(3): 953–981.
44.
MerloAVBenekosPJ (2010) Is punitive juvenile justice policy declining in the United States? A critique of emergent initiatives. Youth Justice10(1): 3–24.
45.
NadelMRPestaGBlombergTBalesWDGreenwaldM (2018) Civil citation: Diversion or net widening?Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency55(2): 278–315.
46.
National Research Council (2001) Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
47.
National Research Council (2013) Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
48.
NeMoyerAGale-BentzEDurhamKWagageSGoldsteinNES (2020a) Adverse juvenile probation supervision outcomes: Noncompliance, revocation, and failure to appear at review hearings. Criminal Justice and Behavior47(2): 145–165.
49.
NeMoyerAGale-BentzEGoldsteinNESPema HarveyL (2020b) Factors associated with successful completion of a community-based, post-arrest juvenile diversion program and subsequent rearrest. Crime & Delinquency66(5): 603–626.
50.
NeMoyerAGoldsteinNESMcKittenRLPrelicAEbbeckeJFosterEBurkardC (2014) Predictors of juveniles’ noncompliance with probation requirements. Law and Human Behavior38(6): 580–591.
51.
ParkISullivanCJHolmesB (2022) An assessment of juvenile justice reform in Ohio: Impact on youth placement and recidivism from 2008 to 2015. Crime & Delinquency. Epub ahead of print 8 August. DOI: 10.1177/00111287221117479.
52.
PetitclercAGattiUVitaroFTremblayRE (2013) Effects of juvenile court exposure on crime in young adulthood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry54(3): 291–297.
53.
PhelpsMS (2013) The paradox of probation: Community supervision in the age of mass incarceration. Law & Policy35(1–2): 51–80.
54.
PhelpsMS (2018) Ending mass probation. The Future of Children28(1): 125–146.
55.
PiqueroARJenningsWG (2017) Research note: Justice system-imposed financial penalties increase the likelihood of recidivism in a sample of adolescent offenders. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice15(3): 325–340.
56.
PiqueroARBaglivioMTWolffKT (2023) A statewide analysis of the impact of restitution and fees on juvenile recidivism in Florida across race & ethnicity. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice21: 279–308.
57.
PowellK (2022) The age-graded consequences of justice system involvement for mental health. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency59(2): 167–202.
58.
PuzzancheraC (2019) Juvenile Arrests, 2017. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs.
59.
RobertsonAAFangZWeilandDJoeGGardnerSDemboRMcReynoldsLDicksonMPankowJDennisMElkingtonK (2020) Recidivism among justice-involved youth: Findings from JJ-TRIALS. Criminal Justice and Behavior47(9): 1059–1078.
60.
RyanJPAbramsLSHuangH (2014) First-time violent juvenile offenders: Probation, placement, and recidivism. Social Work Research38(1): 7–18.
61.
SampsonRJLaubJH (1997) A life-course theory of cumulative disadvantage and the stability of delinquency. In: ThornberryT (ed.) Advances in Criminological Theory: Developmental Theories of Crime and Delinquency. London: Routledge, 133–161.
62.
ScottESSteinbergL (2008) Adolescent development and the regulation of youth crime. The Future of Children18: 15–33.
63.
ShanahanMJ (2000) Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology26(1): 667–692.
64.
SharleinJ (2018) Beyond recidivism: Investigating comparative educational and employment outcomes for adolescents in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Crime & Delinquency64(1): 26–52.
65.
SnyderH (1997) Juvenile Arrests, 1996. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs.
66.
SullivanCJVeyseyBMHamiltonZKGrilloM (2007) Reducing out-of-community placement and recidivism: Diversion of delinquent youth with mental health and substance use problems from the justice system. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology51(5): 555–577.
67.
SweetenG (2006) Who will graduate? Disruption of high school education by arrest and court involvement. Justice Quarterly23(4): 462–480.
TorbetP (1997) Juvenile probation: The workhorse of the juvenile justice system (Juvenile probation administrators desktop guide 13). Available at: https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles/workhors.pdf
70.
WileySASlocumLAEsbensenFA (2013) The unintended consequences of being stopped or arrested: An exploration of the labeling mechanisms through which police contact leads to subsequent delinquency. Criminology51(4): 927–966.
71.
ZaneSNWelshBCMearsDP (2016) Juvenile transfer and the specific deterrence hypothesis: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Criminology & Public Policy15(3): 901–925.
72.
ZimringFE (1998) Toward a jurisprudence of youth violence. Crime and Justice24: 477–501.
