Judicial Waivers to Criminal Court
In certain cases, juveniles may be tried in criminal courtCertain juveniles—those charged with serious offenses, those with lengthy records of prior offenses, or those who are unreceptive to treatment in the juvenile justice system—are sometimes transferred to criminal court. Most States have modified their laws in recent years to enable the transfer of more young offenders into the criminal justice system. In a growing number of States, cases that meet certain age and offense criteria are excluded by statute from juvenile court jurisdiction and may be filed directly in criminal court. In some States, prosecutors have discretion to file certain juvenile cases directly in criminal court. In most States, laws also allow juvenile court judges to waive jurisdiction over cases meeting certain criteria. The criminal court then has responsibility to prosecute such cases. There are no national trend data on the number of young offenders moved into the criminal justice system directly via statutory exclusion or prosecutor decision (rather than by juvenile court waiver), but recent legislative trends suggest that the number is growing. The offense profile of waived cases has changed
In 1988, property offense cases accounted for 53% of judicially waived delinquency cases and person offense cases accounted for 28%. By 1995, the offense profile of waived cases had changed, with person offense cases accounting for 47% and property offense cases for 34% of waived cases. By 1997, however, the numbers of waived person and property cases converged: person cases dropped to 40% of waived cases and property cases increased to 38%. In comparison, drug and public order cases have remained a small proportion of waived cases (15% and 7%, respectively, in 1997).
The demographic characteristics of judicially waived cases have changed somewhat over the past decade. The proportion of younger juveniles has increased. Despite this change, the vast majority of waivers involve males age 16 or older, although their proportion has diminished somewhat. These older males accounted for 88% of all waived cases in 1988 and 83% in 1997.
Changes in the juvenile court’s use of waiver and the characteristics and volume of waived cases reflect changes in transfer provisions. For example, as presumptive waiver for certain serious offenses has become more common across the country, such cases have had an increased likelihood of waiver. In addition, the recent decline in the volume of waived cases can be at least partially attributed to the proliferation of statutory exclusion provisions—many of the very serious cases that in the past came to juvenile court and were waived are now filed directly in criminal court. Changes in the waiver caseload also result from changes in the delinquency caseload. For example, the growth in the total volume of the juvenile court’s person offense caseload accounts for the growth in waived person offense cases. In addition, changes in the waiver caseload result from changes in the system’s response to certain types of crime. This effect is seen in the use of waiver in drug cases. Following the introduction of crack cocaine and the subsequent “war on drugs,” there was a change in the perceived seriousness of drug offenses (particularly drug trafficking). The likelihood of waiver among formally processed drug cases rose from 1.6% in 1988 to 4.1% in 1991. In 1991, the number of waived drug cases peaked at more than 1,800, despite the fact that the total number of formal drug cases was at a 4-year low.
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