ln Transfer of juveniles to Adult Court: Effects of a Broad Policy in One Court by Edward R Mulvey and Carol A. Schubert, the authors bring to light how when adolescents are put in the adult system versus juvenile, it teaches these adolescents that the “demand for proportional punishment has trumped the goal of individualized rehabilitation found in the juvenile justice system.” Mulvey and Schubert focus their purpose on “how and why do many serious adolescent offenders stop offending while others continue to commit a crime.” Mulvey and Schubert provide with a very clear message of the different factors and elements that come into play when it comes to how adolescents react differently to being put back into society after facing the adult justice system According to some studies done, “youth who associate with more antisocial peers resume antisocial activity more quickly and are rearrested more quickly than those who have more positive social relationships” .
With the layout presented, this paper is very appealing to one’s eyes. By including a page just for “highlights” it makes the paper easier to read and more accessible in my opinion However, when the reader starts to delve into it, it’s only then that one realizes that it’s not the expected layout. It is not until “Disruptions in Development” on page five that the reader finds more information on what the highlights on page one are actually about To that, there isn’t as much information as one would hope There appears to be too much “foliage“ going into the paper. After the “Highlights” section (which indeed is very nice and very helpful- it helps set the stage as to what the reader will be expecting) comes the first topic: “Effects of Changes in Transfer Policies on Practice”, where the authors talk about the proportion of juveniles in the adult justice system.
While an interesting read with many facts and sources, I fail to see what the authors would want to almost open with this topic when it was not addressed or referenced to in the “Highlights” portion of the paper, The next few sections include “Reconsideration of the Current Transfer Policy”, “Possible detrimental effects of transfer”, “Longer sentences”, and “victimization”. With the seemingly original intent focused on the detrimental effects of placing a juvenile in the adult justice system, the paper seems to have veered off track. While the topics that were included are in fact, interesting, I do not personally believe that they played as large of a role as the authors had originally thought. Going into the paper, I became interested when I read the words “How and why do many serious adolescent offenders stop offending while others continue to commit crime?” and I feel that this was never properly addressed I think that it is well known that jails and prisons of any sort are never ideal.
Rapes will happen, unwanted sexual advances will happen, physical force will indeed happen. It has become part of that “culture” or “atmosphere” and yes, I am sure that would definitely have an impact on adolescents and how they recover and I’m sure it does play a factor in whether or not they would commit another serious crime in the future. However, due to the language used and the facts given, I was not expecting that as a reader, the authors would delve into that as much as they did. I was expecting to hear more of how adolescents did after their time and experience with the adult justice system. Despite my problems I seem to have had with this paper, I still very much did enjoy the language used by Mulvey and Schubert. It was professional, but not dull either.
I still really rather enjoy the layout that was used and I think more papers should be written in this style and appearance. The amount of citations and facts that were used comforted me in an intellectual way. I do believe that Mulvey and Schubert were successful in conveying their overall message. As the paper neared the ending, I found one sentence to be particularly helpful in helping to reaffirm their original thesis: “Spending time in prison or jailrrcurtails the amount of an adolescent’s practice time to freely develop skills and competencies in several areas“. Overall, Mulvey and Schubert proved their argument. They gave plenty of sources to reference and rectify their statements and writings. Although they did veer off track for a tad bit, I think it was wise to include as much information as they had, I believe it made for a more rounded and filled out paper (but it still could use more information on the how and whys.
