Impact of Race on Juvenile Transfer Decisions: A Narrative Review of the Literature

Background and Purpose: In the United States, each state has the authority to set guidelines determining under which conditions a juvenile accused of an offense will be petitioned in an adult criminal court rather than juvenile or family court. Judicial waiver is one mechanism through which youth are transferred. The process allows the judge to consider a variety of factors and make an individualized decision about whether or not a particular case should be retained in juvenile court. Due to the subjectivity inherent in the proceedings, judicial waiver is one stage of the legal process in which racial disparities can emerge. The current study seeks to address the question of whether race is an independent contributor in the decision to waive juveniles to adult criminal court.

Methods: The current study is a review of the empirical literature on the legal and extralegal predictors of transfer decisions. First, eight databases available through the Health Sciences and Human Services Library of the University of Maryland were selected. Search terms, e.g. “juvenile”, “waiver”, “transfer”, and “determinants”, were used with Boolean operators to find relevant studies. The primary factor for inclusion was that the study utilized empirical data, included race as a possible intendent variable or covariate to predict a waiver decision, and was published in a peer-reviewed journal.  Studies predicting sentencing decisions after court transfer, having blended sentencing as the primary outcome, or using data collected outside of the United States were excluded. Finally, studies were excluded if data was collected before the U.S. Supreme Court decision Kent v. United States in 1966 because the justices outlined relevant criteria for judges to use when making waiver decisions.

Results: Eight identified studies met all inclusion and exclusion criteria. Across the studies, a significant majority of transferred youth were racial minorities. One study was unable to include race as a predictor in the model due to the homogeneity of the sample. Studies using multivariate analyses (N=4) all found that the juvenile’s race was insignificant as a predictor in the model. Studies relying upon descriptive statistics (N=3) found large disparities in transfer rates between African-American and White youth.

Conclusions and Implications: The identified studies do not suggest judges explicitly consider a juvenile’s race when making waiver decisions. Together the multivariate and descriptive analyses indicate race disparities occur indirectly through other mechanisms. Future research should consider the potential for disparities occurring earlier in the justice process. The findings might also suggest race has less of an effect on outcomes when charges are considered serious, as is the case for youth considered for transfer. Moving forward, interactive effects of race with victim characteristics, region, and offense type (e.g., drug-related or violent) should be considered.