Why Are Juveniles Transferred To Adult Court

As we all know juvenile cases get transferred to an adult court through a waiver. Usually, juvenile cases that are subject to waiver involves more serious crimes. However, there seems to be factors as to why juveniles with lesser offenses are being transferred to adult court. Such as, the juvenile might be older, they are a constant problem to the system and youth services has a hard time working with them and/or has to work with them for a long period of time, they may have a long criminal (non-violent) record of petty offenses, rehabilitation may have been unsuccessful and much more. I don’t agree with these rationales for a transfer. The reason being, juveniles might end up with a lengthy sentence and/or life sentence in an adult facility. (A judge might see a juvenile with a lengthy background record of petty offenses and might give him/ her a lengthy sentence because he/she might be a menace to society.) A juvenile may have to serve time in an adult facility, rather than at juvenile center. (This might cause a juvenile to re-offend.) A conviction in an adult criminal court carries more social shame and humiliation than a conviction in a juvenile court. …show more content…
Prosecuting juveniles with violent offenses in an adult court increases the likelihood that they will be incarcerated and once out, might end up behind bars again. Whereas in a juvenile detention facility, they might have a chance of rehabilitation. As mentioned before youth brains and their abilities of decision making are still developing. So transferring them to an adult court is an unjustly matter, because you are treating them as a fully formed adult. A juvenile who does end up in an adult facility faces a greater risk of being violently and sexually abused and committing suicide. These are all reason as to why juveniles, even with a violent offense should not be tried in an adult