Specificity of sentencing procedures and transfer decisions to state legislation and local jurisdictional rules will make it difficult to assess the effectiveness of interventions that focus on confinement and transfer decisions. However, more research is urgently needed in order to assess both the short-term and long-term impact of such changes, especially given public support for transfers to adult court for serious or violent juvenile offenders. Likewise, increased attention needs to be paid toward developing effective reentry programs, especially for juveniles transferred to the criminal justice system and sentenced to prison.
The prominent trend in juvenile justice during the 1990s was a tough, hard-nosed approach to juvenile crime. The majority of states including the District of Columbia passed laws to transfer juvenile offenders to adult courts. Overall, the literature revealed that this approach was counterproductive and was not achieving the expected results. Studies found that many times youth transferred to adult courts had higher rates of reoffending and committed more serious crimes than youth remaining under the custody of the juvenile courts.