Should juveniles be waivered to adult court Essay

Should juveniles be waivered to adult court - Essay Example d between 1986 and 1992 and recorded various information about waivers including their involvement in criminal court processing, sentencing, and recidivism of youth offenders. Podkopacz and Feld make several errors while attempting to draw a relationship between their localized studies and the role of waivers in court systems throughout the country. The study takes particular effort in ensuring that the population sample drawn from Hennepin’s records is reflective of the waiver trends Minnesota as well the United States. While the study succeeds in showing that its offender population generally reflects trends throughout the United States, the authors do not show that the judges sampled in the study are representative of the judges throughout Minnesota and the United States. If the authors had attempted to craft a more detailed profile of the judges, who made the subjective decision to issue the wavers, and drew a comparison to judges throughout the country, it would follow the judges elsewhere would make similar subjective decisions. The authors take a conservative stance on recidivism by choosing to allow actual adjudications or convictions to stand as indicators of recidivism rather than rearrests. The authors claim that recidivism rates of juveniles indicate that court systems are not achieving their goal. When in fact, consideration of the types of crimes committed by repeat offenders may show that these additional offenses are significantly less in magnitude than the original crimes. Thus, the legal system may be â€Å"working† towards deterring juvenile offenders from additional offenses but not enough. Although the authors make a detailed and strong argument about the role waivers play within Hennepin’s court system, the paper fails to draw a strong gap between the focused group of waivers in Hennepin and waivers throughout Minnesota and the United States. The authors of this study can strengthen their article by providing increased portraits