CM

Today, juveniles may be charged in adult court in every state in the United States (Chu, 2022). Influencing factors for a juvenile to be tried as an adult in trial could be seriousness of the offense, prior criminal history, age, and public safety concerns. Something I did find interesting before I move into examples is that chronic and violent juvenile offenders account for a low 6-8% of juvenile crimes but that they account for disproportionately large numbers of offenses (Office of Justice Programs, 1996). It is noted that three transfer mechanisms for juvenile cases being moved to criminal court include judicial waiver, prosecutorial discretion, and statutory exclusion. Judicial waiver is transferring the case generally after a prosecutor makes a motion to do so. Prosecutorial discretion can be based on the age of the offender and the type of offense. Finally, statutory exclusion is based on a state’s definition of adult age and is commonly associated with the age of offenders and certain offenses. Office of Justice Programs (1996) notes that examples of juvenile offenses that could be tried in criminal court include narcotics trafficking in large scale organizations and bank robbery. Murder is also an example of this transfer from juvenile to criminal court.