Beginning in the 1990s, in response to an increase in juvenile crime, influential criminologists filled the airwaves with predictions of a coming wave of “superpredators.” As reported in a New York Times Retro Report, “The Superpredator Scare,” these criminologists mistakenly believed crime would keep climbing, and fostered a myth that demonized youth, in particular young people of color. These experts believed that we would soon see “radically impulsive, brutally remorseless” kids, many “who pack guns instead of lunches” and “have absolutely no respect for human life.”
Most states reacted to these now famously false predictions by enacting so-called reforms to make it easier to prosecute juveniles as adults. The trend was to expand the “transfer” of youth from juvenile to adult courts, a policy we are still paying for today with harsher penalties and an increase – not a decrease – in recidivism. According to Al Jazeera America, currently in the United States, about 250,000 juveniles are “tried, sentenced or incarcerated each year as adults,” – a truly staggering number.
There are well-known negatives to sending kids to adult prisons. Truthout’s research has found that there are fewer resources vital to teen development in adult facilities, as well as a high risk of assault, rape and suicide. Such dangers for juveniles have led to the criticism of juvenile transfer policies from numerous organizations and researchers according to the well-respected national initiative, the Campaign for Youth Justice.