Benefit/Cost Analysis of Juvenile Court Jurisdiction

Summary

Rationale

Defendant rights and criminal justice processes differ greatly under juvenile jurisdiction in comparison to adult court. As a result, the dispositional outcomes may be different. In addition, institutional conditions and treatment opportunities generally differ substantially for juveniles and adults in secure confinement. The cost differential associated with these differences is large — on the order of two or three times greater cost for juvenile corrections. The age of the boundary between juvenile and adult jurisdiction and the permeability of the boundary vary from state to state. Together, these facts imply that the placement of the boundary is essential to the institutional context for juvenile justice reform in any state.

Purpose of the Research

This project proposes to develop a framework for a benefit-cost analysis of juvenile jurisdiction (vs. adult jurisdiction) for 16 and 17 year olds. Recently, Rhode Island and Connecticut shifted the jurisdiction of 17 year olds, but in different directions. Both states claimed that the shift would save money. Although cost differences are frequently raised by the media and by policymakers as a source of pressure on state budgets, these costs have not been subjected to systematic study. Nor have they been compared, on even footing, to the outcomes produced by the differential spending. This is what the current study will do.

The particulars of the analysis will depend critically upon the institutional context in any given state. Therefore, this project can only undertake the first step toward detailed analysis that can be directly applied to policy. The project has five elements:

develop an appropriate framework for assessing costs and benefits of treating 16 and 17 year olds as juveniles or as adults;
highlight the main institutional features necessary for the analysis;
detail the data elements necessary to conduct detailed analyses;
assess and recommend values for the "technical" parameters required in benefit-cost analysis; and
illustrate the approach and illuminate the extent of sensitivity of the conclusions with sample calculations.

Study Methodology

The first step is to develop a conceptual framework. The framework will identify the margins on which behavioral responses can be anticipated to be important. The framework will rely on related literatures in criminal justice, health and the environment to inform the choice of "technical" parameters for performing the calculations.

A second step is a complete accounting of the common elements of treatment programs for juvenile and adult corrections. This will come from a review of the appropriate research literatures.

In order to illustrate the value of the framework, the project will require secondary source, aggregate data from one or more sites. These data will be entered into the model in order to test the model's sensitivity to the technical parameters mentioned above. The illustrations will also show the types of conclusions that can arise from this style of analysis. The necessary secondary data include descriptive statistics for both adult and juvenile correctional populations and usual treatment protocols for both systems. The site(s) will be chosen to be broadly representative of how juvenile and adult systems work in the U.S.

What are the benefits of participating?