EVALUATING THE GEORGIA LEGISLATIVE WAIVERS EFFECTIVENESS IN DETERRINGJUVENILE CRIME

In an effort to curb the reported increases in violent juvenile crime, the growing trend of state legislatures is the removal of crimes spec ified as serious from the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. Having b een legislatively waived, these offenses are placed within the jurisdi ction of the superior court, and the offender regardless of age, is tr ied as an adult. This investigation reports on the deterrent effect of the Georgia legislative waiver passed in 1994. A quasi-experimental c ohort design is used in a comparison of the mean arrest rates for juve niles arrested for the specified crimes before and after the law's ena ctment. The analysis of the data suggests that there were no significa nt reductions in the mean arrest rates for the offenses specified by t he law. Findings are consistent with studies that evaluated the legisl ative waiver in other states and suggest that the law does not reduce serious juvenile crime.