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40 Crime & Delinquency 3 (1994)

handle is hein.journals/cadq40 and id is 1 raw text is: Serious Juvenile Offenders: Predicting the Probability of Transfer to Criminal Court Tammy Meredith Poulos Stan Orchowsky This study identified the legal and extralegal factors that play a significant role in the decision to transfer a serious juvenile offender to criminal court jurisdiction in Virginia. A sample of 364 juveniles adjudicated delinquentforfelony-level crimes and transferred to criminal court was compared with a sample of 363 juveniles adjudicated for similar crimes who were incarcerated in juvenile learning centers, the most restrictive juvenile correctional option in Virginia. Thirteen variables were signifcant predictors of the transfer decision, the most important ones being age, current offense, and prior delin- quency record. The issue of transfer of juveniles to adult criminal courts reflects on the very heart and philosophy of the juvenile justice system. Since the turn of the century, juveniles were deemed to require different treatment under the law than adults. Adult criminal behavior was viewed as resulting from the exercise of free will, whereas juvenile misbehavior was seen as a product of social forces or developmental difficulties (Fagan, Forst, and Vivona 1987). Although the juvenile court has always maintained some mechanism for transferring cases to criminal court, its parens patriae philosophy has assured that it would play the role of surrogate parent, providing rehabilita- tive programs and services rather than inflicting punishment. During the past 20 years, public sentiments and views of the juvenile court have changed. The increase in juvenile crime in the 1970s, especially violent TAMMY MEREDITH POULOS: Senior Research Analyst, Criminal Justice Research Center, Department of Criminal Justice Services, Richmond, VA. STAN ORCHOWSKY: Evaluation Section Chief, Criminal Justice Research Center, Department of Criminal Justice Services, Richmond, VA. This research was supported in part by Virginia Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention grant no. 92-A7765J awarded to the Criminal Justice Research Center and no. 92-A7738J awarded to the Virginia Commission on Youth. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services or the U.S. Department of Justice. The authors wish to thank the Virginia Commission on Youth for their data collection efforts. CRIME & DELINQUENCY, Vol. 40 No. 1, January 1994 3-17 Q 1994 Sage Publications, Inc. 3 from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.

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