Blended Sentencing Case Study

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Pages: 2

State juvenile courts with delinquency jurisdiction handle cases in which juveniles are accused of acts that would be crimes if adults committed them.
In 41 states, the maximum age of juvenile court jurisdiction is age 17. Seven states draw the juvenile/adult line at 16 and two states set it at 15. In these two states, 16- and 17-year olds are automatically tried in the adult system.
Blended sentencing enables some courts to impose juvenile or adult sanctions (or both) on certain juveniles. Extralegal factors (race in particular) influenced the probability of a blended sentence and transfer to adult criminal court, even though both are rarely imposed, and objective risk-and-needs assessment information should inform decisions in these cases.