Here is a fact sheet disseminated by the Campaign for Youth Justice. The last page contains information about a couple of studies done on recidivism rates of juveniles tried and sentenced in the juvenile justice system versus those tried in the adult criminal justice system.
Click here to read.The following part was interesting: "Another study by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice, published in 2006, also found lower recidivism rates while comparing youth in the juvenile justice system in New Jersey with youth transferred to the adult system in New York. “By using the two groups from the same metropolitan area, with similar economic opportunity, access to weapons, drug use, gang influences, and other influences on crime, any differences in re-arrest between the two groups can be assumed to be due to the different court systems. The re-arrest rates were calculated after controlling for time on the street.” The results found that youth prosecuted in the adult courts in New York were 1.85 times more likely to be re-arrested for violent crimes than those prosecuted in the New Jersey juvenile courts, and 1.44 times more likely to be re-arrested for felony property crimes."
Just as other studies have cautioned, this one adds: "Trying youth as adults does not reduce crime or increase public safety. In fact, youth tried as adults re-offend more than their counterparts in the juvenile justice system."
