April 2006

New WCCF Report, Rethinking the "Juvenile" in Juvenile Justice, Ties Brain Science to Policy

by Wendy Henderson

A 17-year-old is caught toilet papering a house in Madison the night before a big basketball game. He is brought to the Dane County adult jail, and processed as if he was an adult. His parents are not called. Although this was clearly a thoughtless adolescent prank, it is decided he should learn a lesson. He is allowed a single phone call on his way to the holding cell and he calls his mom. He asks her to come take him home. She tells him that she is not in control of the situation. He spends the night in an adult facility.

Many parents in Wisconsin do not know that all 17-year-olds are treated like adults for purposes of criminal prosecution here. Unlike most other states, where the age of majority is still 18 (as it is here for all other purposes), Wisconsin changed its laws in 1995 in a way that reflected a growing distrust of teenagers and misunderstanding of the juvenile justice system. As a result, Wisconsin law would allow a child as young as 10 to be tried as an adult for certain serious crimes, and allows 15-year-olds to be tried in adult court for any crime. Since the mid 1990s, there has been a significant leap in our understanding of adolescent brain development. We now know that the characteristics of adolescence that make teens more likely to be arrested are part of a developmental stage rather than a type of adult criminality.

Rethinking the "Juvenile" in Juvenile Justice, a new report by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, links for the first time research about adolescent brain development with our treatment of minors in the criminal and juvenile justice systems. Co-written by Wendy Henderson and Nan Brien, this report suggests that applying what we know about adolescent development to their treatment will provide more effective and more cost-effective solutions to criminal justice. Policy recommendations are made to address community safety while also taking into account the developmentally appropriate treatment of adolescents in legal trouble.

The report notes that criminal arrests peak during adolescence, both nationwide and in Wisconsin. The vast majority of juvenile arrests are for non-violent crimes, with violent arrests accounting for a mere 4 percent of all juvenile arrests nationally. The bulk of juvenile arrests are for much less serious law violations, such as disorderly conduct, curfew violations, and possession of alcohol or drugs. These facts make sense in light of what we now know about the influence of normal brain development on adolescent behavior.

Major findings of this report include:

  • Almost 5,000 17-year-olds were admitted to adult jails in 2004.
  • From 2003 to 2004, almost three hundred youth 17 years old and younger were admitted to adult prison.
  • Arrests for violent crimes in Wisconsin have decreased each year for the past decade.
  • The ability to control behaviors in highly intense situations does not develop until late adolescence.
  • Adolescence is a distinct period of brain development - decision-making is one of the last brain functions to mature in the early 20s.

Within the report is an analysis of the most recent findings on adolescent brain development, along with the practical implications for the justice system. For example, research in the field of adolescent brain development has confirmed that adolescents are more likely to engage in risk-taking behavior and less able to consider long-term consequences of risky behavior than adults. Research in the field of juvenile justice has found that the vast majority of adolescents who commit a crime will not go on to a life of crime.

Analysis of the laws governing the adult and juvenile penal systems highlights that the juvenile system is designed, funded and staffed for community protection, accountability and treatment. The adult system is neither required nor able to provide the same level of rehabilitation and education to its inmates as the juvenile system. A decade of studies around the country have found that children who are tried and incarcerated in the adult system are more likely to recidivate than minors tried and incarcerated in the juvenile system. Researchers have found that "adult crime, adult time" is ineffective public policy.

It is time to take what we now know about adolescents and extend that knowledge to the juvenile justice system. Simply put, we should not impose the adult criminal justice system on Wisconsin's children. By providing developmentally appropriate treatment for youth, we can increase the likelihood that the community will be protected from juvenile crime and that youth will be successful in making more positive choices for their future. To that end, we recommend the following:

  1. 17-year-olds should be returned to the original jurisdiction of the juvenile court.
  2. The Juvenile Justice Code should be revised so that the juvenile court has presumptive jurisdiction over all youth under 18 years old, and only a juvenile court judge can waive that jurisdiction.
  3. Children under 18 should not be placed in adult prisons or jails.