The article discusses the legal framework for judicial waiver decisions and describes prior research on waiver practices. It explores significant determinants of the waiver decision, analyzing 330 transfer motions filed between 1986 and 1992 to identify the offender and offense variables that affect judicial waiver decisions. The analysis includes indicators of the judicial waiver process, including timing of the process, the role of clinical assessments and the ways in which individual judges affect transfer decisions. The article also examines the subsequent juvenile or criminal court processing, sentencing and recidivism of youths against whom prosecutors filed waiver motions. Findings document the significant effect on the eventual judicial waiver decision of probation recommendations and psychological evaluations. Referred youths were incarcerated at a higher rate than retained youths, regardless of whether the conviction was for a presumptive or non-presumptive crime. Future research should investigate the disparity for similarly situated offenders which shows longer adult sentences for violent offenders and longer juvenile sentences for property offenders. Notes, tables