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Jurisdictional boundaries

Research and tools related to keeping youth within the developmentally-appropriate jurisdiction of the juvenile court, rather than the adult criminal justice system.

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All Jurisdictional boundaries publications

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Publication cover Juvenile Sentencing in a Developmental Framework: The Role of the Courts
Sep 30, 2015, Elizabeth Scott, Thomas Grisso, Marsha Levick, and Laurence Steinberg
Three United States Supreme Court decisions in the past decade have delineated the constitutional principle that children are developmentally different from adults in ways that matter for the fair…
Publication cover Practitioner Brief: Applying a Developmental Framework to Juvenile Sentencing-What Forensic Experts and Attorneys Should Know
Sep 30, 2015, Elizabeth Scott, Thomas Grisso, Marsha Levick, and Laurence Steinberg
Recent decisions by the United States Supreme Court have severely restricted the use of life without parole for juvenile offenders (JLWOP). Affirming the principle that children are developmentally…
Publication cover U.S. Age Boundaries of Delinquency
Aug 14, 2015, Angel Zang
This StateScan publication is the 8th in a series that distills knowledge from NCJJ’s Juvenile Justice Geography, Policy, Practice & Statistics website. The publication summarizes the…
Publication cover State Trends 2013-2014 Legislative Session
Sep 12, 2014, Campaign for Youth Justice
The report takes a look at states that have, and are taking steps to remove children from the adult criminal justice system. State Trends documents the continuation of four trends in justice reform…
Publication cover Capital City Correction: Reforming DC's Use of Adult Incarceration Against Youth
May 19, 2014, Eduardo Ferrer, Campaign for Youth Justice and DC Lawyers for Youth
From 2007 to 2012, 541 youth were charged as adults and incarcerated in adult jail in the District of Columbia. While incarcerated in the adult jail, these DC youth were housed in a developmentally…
Publication cover Automatic Adult Prosecution of Children in Cook County, Illinois 2010-2012
Apr 22, 2014, Juvenile Justice Initiative, Kanako Ishida, Policy Research Analyst; Elizabeth Clarke, President; David Reed, Board Member
Over 30 years of poor outcomes from “automatic” adult prosecution of children. Under Illinois' automatic transfer law in effect during the study of 2010 through 2012, anyone age 15 or 16…
Publication cover Raising the Age of Juvenile Court Jurisdiction in Illinois
Dec 1, 2013, Illinoia Juvenile Justice Coalition
Publication cover Kids are Not Adults
Dec 1, 2013, National Conference of State Legislatures
Research distinguishing adolescents from adults has led states to re-establish boundaries between the criminal and juvenile justice systems. New policies reflect the growing body of research on how…
Publication cover State Trends: Legislative Victories from 2011-2013
Oct 10, 2013, Campaign for Youth Justice
Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System Over the past eight years, 23 states have enacted 40 pieces of legislation to reduce the prosecution of youth in adult criminal courts and end…
Publication cover NJJN Policy Platform - Youth in the Adult System
Aug 1, 2013, National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN)
We all recognize that youth are different from adults -- so why doesn't our juvenile justice system? With legal and scientific communities consistently asserting that young people cannot be held…
Publication cover Raising the Age of Juvenile Court Jurisdiction: The Future of 17-yr-olds in Illinois' Justice System
Feb 1, 2013, Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission
In 2009, legislative advocates in Illinois supported moving 17-yr-olds from criminal to juvenile court jurisdiction. The proposal was vigorously debated, with opponents raising concerns over public…
Publication cover Innovation Brief: Reforming Automatic Transfer Laws: A Success Story
Nov 30, 2012, Jason Szanyi, Center for Children’s Law and Policy
In the mid-1980s, the Illinois Legislature took a tough stance on drug use among youth. As part of a national trend toward harsher punishments for juveniles, lawmakers decided to prosecute in adult…
Publication cover State Trends: Legislative Victories from 2005 to 2010 Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System
Mar 16, 2011, Neelum Arya, Research & Policy Director at the Campaign for Youth Justice
Neelum Arya, National Research and Policy Director at the Campaign for Youth Justice, recently authored the report, State Trends: Legislative Changes from 2005 to 2010 Removing Youth from the Adult…
Publication cover Conducting Benefit-Cost Analyses of Juvenile Court Jurisdiction and Other Juvenile Justice Policies
Dec 21, 2009, Jens Ludwig, Roseanna Ander & Laura Brinkman
Concern about juvenile crime in the 1980s led most states across the country to enact policy changes that made it easier to transfer juvenile arrestees into the adult criminal justice system (Hahn et…
Publication cover Different from Adults: An Updated Analysis of Juvenile Transfer and Blended Sentencing Laws, with Recommendations for Reform
Nov 1, 2008, National Center for Juvenile Justice
Maps the current landscape of laws governing the trial, sentencing, and sanctioning of juveniles as adults. The report summarizes the transfer laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia as of…
Publication cover Changing Course: A Review of the First Two Years of Drug Transfer Reform in Illinois
May 31, 2008, Illinois Juvenile Justice Initiative
Details the reform efforts that led to passage of PA 94-0574, which reversed the automatic transfer of juvenile drug cases to adult court, and the impact the law has had in the two years after it…
Publication cover Jailing Juveniles: The Dangers of Incarcerating Youth in Adult Jails in America
Nov 1, 2007, Neelum Arya, Liz Ryan, Jessica Sandoval and Julie Kudrna
Provides a summary of the risks that youth face when incarcerated in adult jails, facts and figures about how many youth are incarcerated in jails nationwide, and a review of the limited federal and…
Supported by

Models for Change was a juvenile justice systems reform initiative supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, website operated by Justice Policy Institute.

MacArthur