Title

Spare the Needle But Not the Punishment:The Incarceration of Waived Youth in Texas Prisons

Abstract

The primary purpose of judicial waiver is to impose more severe sanctions on offenders than are available in juvenile court. This article explores two dimensions of sanction severity, sentence length and actual time served, to determine if juveniles waived to adult court do receive more severe sanctions. Data were collected on all youth waived to adult court from 1981-1993 and sentenced to prison (n = 946). Juveniles in this population consistently received longer sentences than are available in juvenile court. When actual time served was taken into consideration, however, these youth rarely served more lengthy sentences than are available in juvenile court, serving an average of only 27% of their original sentence.

Department(s)

Criminology and Criminal Justice

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128796042004006

Publication Date

1996

Journal Title

Crime & Delinquency 42

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