The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of juvenile status on sentencing in the adult criminal justice system. This study includes four years (2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006) of national level data from the State Court Processing Statistics. The sample is comprised of over 35,000 offenders who were convicted in criminal court. In using multilevel modeling, the results indicate that juveniles are punished both equally and more harshly than adults, depending on the age of the adults and the specific sentencing outcome. The findings are partially consistent with existing research that suggests a juvenile penalty at the sentencing stage of criminal court proceedings.
AlbonettiC. A. (1997). Sentencing under the federal sentencing guidelines: Effects of defendant characteristics, guilty pleas, and departures on sentence outcomes for drug offenses, 1991-1992. Law & Society Review, 31, 789–822.
2.
BarnesC.FranzR. S. (1989). Questionaby adult: Determinants and effects of the juvenile waiver decision. Justice Quarterly, 6, 117–135.
3.
BartollasC.MillerS. J. (2011). Juvenile justice in America (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
4.
BernardT. J.KurlychekM. C. (2010). The cycle of juvenile justice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
5.
BishopD. M.FrazierC. E.Lanza-KaduceL.WinnerL. (1996). The transfer of juveniles to criminal court: Does it make a difference?Crime and Delinquency, 42, 171–191.
6.
BrittC. L. (2000). Social context and racial disparities in punishment decisions. Justice Quarterly, 17, 707–732.
7.
BushwayS.JohnsonB. D.SlocumL. A. (2007). Is the magic still there? The use of the Heckman two-step correction for selection bias in criminology. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 23, 151–178.
8.
DilulioJ. J. (1995). The coming of the super-predators. Weekly Standard, 1, 23–27.
EverettR. S.WojtkiewiczR. A. (2002). Difference, disparity, and race/ethnic bias in federal sentencing. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 18, 189–211.
11.
FaganJ. (1995). Separating the men from the boys: The comparative advantage of juvenile versus criminal court sanctions on recidivism among adolescent felony offenders. In HowellJ. C.KrisbergB.HawkinsJ. D.WilsonJ. J. (Eds.), A sourcebook: Serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders (pp. 238–260). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
12.
FaganJ.DeschenesE. P. (1990). Determinants of judicial waiver decisions for violent juvenile offenders. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 81, 314–347.
13.
FaganJ.ForstM.VivonaT. S. (1987). Racial determinants of the judicial transfer decision: Prosecuting violent youth in criminal court. Crime and Delinquency, 33, 259–286.
14.
FearnN. E. (2005). A multilevel analyses of community effects on criminal sentencing. Justice Quarterly, 22, 452–487.
15.
FeldB. C. (1999). Race and the transformation of the juvenile court. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
16.
FeldB. C. (2000). Legislative exclusion of offenses from juvenile court jurisdiction: A history and critique. In FaganJ.ZimringF. E. (Eds.), The changing borders of juvenile justice: Transfer of adolescents to the criminal court (pp. 83–144). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
17.
ForstM.FaganJ.VivonaT. S. (1989). Youth in prisons and training schools: Perceptions and consequences of the treatment-custody dichotomy. Juvenile and Family Court Journal, 40, 1–14.
18.
FoxJ. A.SwattM. L. (2009). Multiple imputation of the supplementary homicide reports, 1976-2005. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 25, 51–77.
19.
FreiburgerT. L.HilinskiC. M. (2013). An examination of the interactions of race and gender on sentencing decisions using a trichotomous dependent variable. Crime and Delinquency, 59, 59–86.
20.
FreiburgerT. L.JordanK. L. (2011). A multilevel analysis of race on the decision to petition a case in the juvenile court. Race and Justice, 1, 185–201.
21.
HarringtonM. P. (2008). Revisiting the total incarceration variable: Should researchers separate jail from prison sentences in sentencing research. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 24, 462–478.
22.
HoxJ. (2002). Multilevel analyses: Techniques and applications. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
23.
JohnsonB. D.KurlychekM. C. (2012). Transferred juveniles in the era of sentencing guidelines: Examining judicial departures for juvenile offenders in adult criminal court. Criminology, 50, 525–564.
24.
JohnsonB.UlmerJ. T.KramerJ. (2008). The social context of guideline circumvention: The case of federal district courts. Criminology, 46, 737–783.
25.
JohnsonK.Lanza-KaduceL.WoolardJ. (2011). Disregarding graduated treatment: Why transfer aggravates recidivism. Crime and Delinquency, 57, 756–777.
26.
JordanK. L. (2006). Violent youth in adult court: The decertification of transferred offenders. New York, NY: LFB Scholarly.
27.
JordanK. L. (2012). Juvenile transfer and recidivism: A propensity score matching approach. Journal of Crime and Justice, 2, 53–67.
28.
JordanK. L.MyersD. L. (2007). The decertification of transferred youth: Examining the determinants of reverse waiver. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 5, 188–206.
29.
JordanK. L.MyersD. L. (2011). Juvenile transfer and deterrence: Re-examining the effectiveness of a ‘get tough’ policy. Crime and Delinquency, 57, 247–270.
30.
KupchikA. (2006). The decision to incarcerate in juvenile and criminal courts. Criminal Justice Review, 31, 309–336.
31.
KurlychekM. C. (2010). Pathways to adult court: Does the road traveled impact the final destination?Justice Research and Policy, 12, 1–24.
32.
KurlychekM. C.JohnsonB. D. (2004). The juvenile penalty: A comparison of juvenile and young adult sentencing outcomes in criminal court. Criminology, 42, 485–517.
33.
KurlychekM. C.JohnsonB. D. (2010). Juvenility and punishment: Sentencing juveniles in adult criminal court. Criminology, 48, 725–758.
34.
KutnerM. H.NachtsheimC. J.NeterJ.LiW. (2005). Applied linear statistical models (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
35.
Lanza-KaduceL.LaneJ.BishopD. M.FrazierC. E. (2005). Juvenile offenders and adult felony recidivism: The impact of transfer. Journal of Crime and Justice, 28, 59–77.
36.
LemmonJ. H.AustinT. L.VerrecchiaP. J.FetzerM. (2005). The effect of legal and extralegal factors on statutory exclusion of juvenile offenders. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 3, 214–234.
37.
LoughranT. A.MulveyE. P.SchubertC. A.ChassinL. A.SteinbergL.PiqueroA. R.,…Losoya S. (2010). Differential effects of adult court transfer on juvenile offender recidivism. Law and Human Behavior, 3, 476–488.
38.
MearsD. (2003). A critique of waiver research: Critical next steps in assessing the impact of laws for transferring juveniles to the criminanl justice system. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 1, 156–172.
39.
MyersD. L. (2001). Excluding violent youths from juvenile court: The effectiveness of legislative waiver. New York, NY: LFB Scholarly.
40.
MyersD. L. (2003a). Adult crime, adult time: Punishing violent youth in the adult criminal justice system. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 1, 173–197.
41.
MyersD. L. (2003b). The recidivism of violent youths in juvenile and adult court: A consideration of selection bias. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 1, 79–101.
42.
MyersD. L. (2005). Boys among men: Trying and sentencing juveniles as adults. Westport, CT: Praeger.
RaudenbushS. W.BrykA. S. (2011). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
45.
RubinD. (1987). Multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. New York, NY: John Wiley.
46.
SchaferJ. L.GrahamJ. W. (2002). Missing data: Our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147–177.
47.
SpohnC.HolleranD. (2000). The imprisonment penalty paid by young unemployed Black and Hispanic male offenders. Criminology, 38, 281–306.
48.
SridharanS.GreenfieldL.BlakleyB. (2004). A study of prosecutorial certification practice in Virginia. Criminology and Public Policy, 3, 605–632.
49.
SteffensmeierD.DemuthS. (2000). Ethnicity and sentencing in U.S. federal courts: Who is punished more harshly?American sociological review, 65, 705–729.
SteffensmeierD.DemuthS. (2006). Does gender modify the effects of race-ethnicty on criminal sanctions? Sentences for male and female, White, Black, and Hispanic defendants. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 22, 241–261.
52.
SteffensmeierD.KramerJ. H.UlmerJ. T. (1995). Age differences in sentencing. Justice Quarterly, 12, 583–602.
53.
SteffensmeierD.KramerJ.StreifelC. (1993). Gender and imprisonment decisions. Criminology, 31, 411–446.
54.
SteffensmeierD.UlmerJ.KramerJ. (1998). The interaction of race, gender, and age in criminal sentencing: The punishment of being young, Black, and male. Criminology, 36, 763–797.
55.
SteinbergL. (2009). Should the science of adolescent brain development inform public policy. American Psychologist, 64, 739–750.
56.
SteinerB. (2009). The effects of juvenile transfer to criminal court on incarceration decisions. Justice Quarterly, 26, 77–106.
57.
TaylorR. W.FritschE. J.CaetiT. J. (2007). Juvenile justice: Policies, programs, and practices (2nd ed.). Woodland Hills, CA: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
58.
TorbetP.GableR.HurstIV, H.MongomeryI.Szymanski L.ThomasD. (1996). State responses to serious and violent juvenile crime. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
59.
UlmerJ. T.JohnsonB. (2004). Sentencing in context: A multilevel analysis. Criminology, 42, 137–178.
60.
WangX.MearsD. P. (2010). Examining the direct and interactive effects of changes in racial and ethnic threat on sentencing decisions. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 47, 522–557.
61.
WangX.MearsD. P.SpohnC.DarioL. (2013). Assessing the differential effects of race and ethnicity on sentence outcomes under different sentencing systems. Crime and Delinquency, 59, 87–114.
62.
WinnerL.Lanza-KaduceL.BishopD. M.FrazierC. E. (1997). The transfer of juveniles to criminal court: Reexamining recidivism over the long term. Crime and Delinquency, 43, 548–563.
63.
WuJ.SpohnC. (2009). Does an offender's age have an effect on sentence length? A meta-analytic review. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 20, 379–413.
64.
ZimringF. E. (1998). American youth violence. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
