Judging Juveniles: Prosecuting Adolescents in Adult and Juvenile Courts (New Perspectives in Crime, Deviance, and Law)

223 Pages·2016·0.54 MB·English

by  Aaron Kupchik

Judging Juveniles
new perspectives in crime, deviance, and law series
Edited by John Hagan
Clean Streets
Controlling Crime, Maintaining Order, and
Building Community Activism
Patrick J. Carr
Gender and Crime
Patterns in Victimization and Offending
Edited by Karen Heimer and Candace Kruttschnitt
The Many Colors of Crime
Inequalities of Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America
Edited by Ruth D. Peterson, Lauren J. Krivo, and John Hagan
Immigration and Crime
Race, Ethnicity,and Violence
Edited by Ramiro Martínez Jr. and Abel Valenzuela Jr.
Judging Juveniles
Prosecuting Adolescents in Adult and Juvenile Courts
Aaron Kupchik
Judging
Juveniles
Prosecuting Adolescents in
Adult and Juvenile Courts
Aaron Kupchik
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
new york university press
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
©2006 by New York University
All rights reserved
Libraryof Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kupchik, Aaron.
Judging juveniles : prosecuting adolescents in adult and juvenile
courts / Aaron Kupchik.
p. cm. — (New perspectives in crime, deviance, and law series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-4794-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8147-4794-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-4774-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8147-4774-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Juvenile justice, Administration of—United States. 2. Criminal
justice, Administration of—United States. 3. Juvenile delinquents
—United States. I. Title.
HV9104.K87 2006
364.360973—dc22 2006018396
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Elena and Sarah

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction: Growing Up Quickly 1
2 Law and Context 24
3 The Process of Prosecuting Adolescents: How Formal? 50
4 Judging Adolescents: What Matters? 71
5 Punishment for Adolescents: 109
What Do They Get, and Why?
6 Children in an Adult World 131
7 Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle: Lessons for Policy 149
Appendix: Research Methods 167
Notes 183
Index 205
About the Author 211
vii

Acknowledgments
I first want to thank my parents, Herb and Leona Kupchik.
They have been wonderful models for my work, my life, and my new role
as a parent. My brother, Philip, has also done his job as a big brother well:
to teach me, while antagonizing me just enough to want to succeed.
While at New York University,Iwas extremely fortunate to work with
several amazing scholars. I am very grateful to Jo Dixon for her tireless
efforts to steer me in the right direction, and to David Garland and David
Greenberg for their inexhaustible patience and superb guidance. The
mentorship of Jeffrey Fagan, as well, has made this book possible by pro-
viding access to data, advice, lessons on successful research from begin-
ning to end, and phenomenal exposureto established scholars who share
my interests. Friends and colleagues at NYU have also contributed in
countless ways to this work, particularly my reading group of Vanessa
Barker, Joseph De Angelis, and Karen Snedker, as well as Brian Gifford.
A number of friends and colleagues at Arizona State University have
helped this project advance, and have made the School of Justice and So-
cial Inquiry at ASU a warm, supportive, and intellectually stimulating
place to be an assistant professor. I owe thanks to Madelaine Adelman,
David Altheide, Thomas Catlaw, Gray Cavender, Suzanne Fallender,
Marie Griffin, John Hepburn, Pat Lauderdale, Cecilia Menjivar, Laura
Peck, Marie Provine, Brad Snyder,and Marjorie Zatz for their friendship
and for helping my work to develop. Nancy Jurik and Torin Monahan
were especially generous with their time and effort in offering advice on
this manuscript. Several ASU students, as well, contributed to this pro-
ject, for which I am grateful: Francisco Alatorre, Gregory Broberg, An-
gela Harvey, William Parkin, and Sheruni Ratnabalasuriar.
Within the academic community at large, a number of other individu-
als have helped this project move forward as they have watched it with
interest. I appreciate the conversations I have had about my work with
ix