A Test of the Deterrent Effect of Legislative Waiver on Violent Juvenile Crime

Abstract

The automatic transfer of juveniles charged with serious crimes to adult court has become an increasingly common alternative to juvenile court handling in a number of states in the past two decades. Deterrence is one of the major arguments underlying this growth in the use of legislative waiver. This research evaluated the deterrent effect of the 1981 Idaho legislative waiver statute. Analyses of arrest data using a time series design indicated that this law did not reduce violent juvenile crime.

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