Juvenile Justice

Although the future of juvenile justice policy is uncertain, the impact of policies from the 1990s is clear: Despite declining juvenile crime rates, the adultification of youth continues to include punitive and exclusionary sanctions. Attitudes toward offenders are ambivalent, but there is evidence that legislators and the public are reluctant to abandon the punitive policies of the 1990s. Simultaneously, there are indications of more enlightened approaches to juvenile justice. In this context, the authors review the state of juvenile justice policy and review trends in waiver and sentencing.