Probation and Parole

Probation and Parole

The United States made a thoughtful and deliberate choice in 1899 to accommodate developmental differences between adolescents and adults with the establishment of juvenile courts. The reforms of that era created a separate system of justice for juveniles that recognized differences in culpability and maturity. Jane Addams, one of the original visionaries of the juvenile justice system, noted that the goal of the system should be a determination to understand the growing child and a sincere effort to find ways for securing his orderly development in normal society. Over the course of the following years, most states enacted provisions for transferring some youth out of juvenile courts and trying them in adult courts under limited circumstances (Steiner 2006).

In the last two decades, the circumstances under which transfer occurs have expanded greatly. Part of the reason for the rise in sentencing youth to life in prison was the upswing in crime in the late 1980s and early 1990s, fueled in large part by the emerging crack cocaine drug markets and easy access to illegal guns. By 1993, the rate of homicides committed by juveniles had tripled from a decade earlier. Policymakers, the media, and the public listened to dire warnings from some that, on the horizon are tens of thousands of severely morally impoverished juvenile super predators. These so-called super predators never arrived; moreover, the juvenile homicide rate was already declining when this statement was made, and homicide rates among juveniles have dropped steadily since 1993. The homicide arrest rate for 10-17-year-olds in 2008 of 3.8 per 100,000 represents a 74% decline from the peak arrest rate for juvenile-involved homicides in 1993, 14.4 per 100,000.6 Nonetheless, driven by media reports of celebrated cases and public fears, catch phrases such as adult crime, adult time were popularized. ...