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A group of 2,738 Florida youths transferred to adult criminal court reoffended more quickly and committed more serious crimes than did a matched sample of youths sentenced in the juvenile system, the study found.
``These results are probably pretty bad news for advocates of the 'get tough' policy,'' said Charles Frazier, a UF sociologist and co-author of the study. ``One basis in the underlying logic behind sending juveniles to adult courts is that, as a harsher, more punitive response, it is expected that juvenile crime will be reduced.''
Since the late 1970s, a majority of states have changed their laws to make it easier to try juveniles in adult criminal courts.
``But this punishment for some juveniles could have the opposite effect,'' Frazier said. ``Instead of sending a message that the game is over and it's time to grow up and stop misbehaving, it may send the message that society has given up on you and you're a lost cause.''
Using 1987 records from the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, the researchers matched pairs of youths for age, gender, race, present offense and prior record, with the primary difference between groups being that one was treated in the adult courts and the other in the juvenile justice system.
Researchers found that 30 percent of youths tried as adults were rearrested during the year after their release compared to 19 percent of the youths retained in the juvenile system. Ninety-three percent of the rearrests involving the youths tried as adults were for felony offenses, compared to 85 percent of their counterparts handled as juveniles.
A paper on the study results, jointly authored by University of Central Florida criminologist Donna Bishop, UF sociologist Lonn Lanza-Kaduce and UF statistician Lawrence Winner, appeared in the April issue of the journal Crime and Delinquency.
Cathy Keen