Perhaps one of the only advantages of the variety and disparity of justice systems approaches to juveniles in this country is the opportunity it provides as a laboratory to examine the impact of a wide range of judicial alternatives on those who find themselves within the snare of the system. While certainly not a justification for the existence of such disparity across states, the variety of juvenile justice alternatives does allow a research effort which can begin to look at the consequences of the system on the individuals it is intended to serve. By controlling as closely as possible those factors which could tend to confuse the picture, comparative study of the outcome of judicial proceedings across states can add significantly to that body of fact which is essential for reasoned and effective decision making as to future plans. At the very least, information of this type can lay a foundation upon which the arguments of value and opinion can be staged. If we can determine, as carefully as possible, the answer to the question, "what happens?" within each system, then we are left only with deciding which of those alternatives we would prefer. Without that information, however, we find ourselves one step further removed from wise decision making. The present study is intended to provide information of this type. By examining the outcome of judicial proceedings of sixteen and seventeen year olds in two states, New York and Pennsylvania, we can begin to understand impact of jurisdictional age on the operation of the system. In New York, a sixteen or seventeen year old who violates the law would find himself in the jurisdiction of an adult criminal court. In Pennsylvania, that same youth would be seen at the juvenile court. It is certainly plausible that such a major difference in the two system alternatives to the same youth should have an effect on the eventual outcome of the judicial proceedings in each case. And yet, any measure of that difference must, at this point, be con jectured. The fact is that we don't know what happens to that sixteen year old under each system. Further, we don't know what happens to the majority of sixteen and seventeen year olds. That this is important is underscored by the fact that over 500,000 youth handled by the juvenile courts in this country fell in this age range. This represents approximately 42% of the total court population. ニュ METHOD Geographic Areas The areas of comparison for this investigation were Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, and Erie County (Buffalo), New York. These two areas were chosen because of their comparability in terms of critical demographic factors, as illustrated in Table 2, as well as the similarity in their industrial character. A third consideration was their relative proximity to each other, which minimized the expense in gathering data. *See Table 2- following page. |