From The Sentencing Project:
Introduction
Reports of increased crime — whether backed by evidence or merely anecdotal — ought to lead anyone who cares about youth justice to worry. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, increases in youth offending and changes in policy led to vastly more teenagers sent to adult prisons and jails as well as juvenile facilities. Pundits, ignorant of the harshness already embedded in the system, claimed even more incarceration was needed or teen crime would only accelerate.1
In those years, constituents’ fears led and politicians followed. Today, we have ample evidence — evidence that 1990s leaders did not — that harsh responses to teens’ poor decisions fail. Teenagers make bad choices because they’re teenagers. They’re immature. They’re impulsive. They’re unduly influenced by their peers. But what excuses do adults have when they, too, prove themselves swayed by media narratives and cherry-picked anecdotes?
With the benefits of hindsight, we can see the predicted carnage did not arrive; instead, youth offending began a long decline. Drops in youth arrests then coincided with drops in youth incarceration. Over the course of the 21st century, locking up fewer kids hasn’t resulted in more crime; it’s been followed by less crime. Continue reading >>>
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