Targeting youth—Hit or miss? Juvenile certification in Clark County, Nevada examined

Abstract

Targeting Youth—Hit or Miss? Juvenile Certification in Clark County, Nevada Examined by Brittnie Turquoise Watkins Dr. Alexis Kennedy, Examination Committee Chair Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice University of Nevada, Las Vegas Juvenile certification is the method by which a juvenile may be removed from juvenile court jurisdiction and placed in the adult criminal court jurisdiction. In many cases, juvenile courts exercise judicial certifications, in which a judge determines if the case will be heard in juvenile or adult court. Many factors influence a judge's determination of certification outcomes. Legal factors include dangerousness, amenability, and maturity of the youth. Extra-legal factors include race and sex. Although judges are believed to be impartial, prior research has found that these bias factors may influence outcomes. This study assesses what factors are influential in one Clark County juvenile court judge's certification decisions. The study further evaluates whether the safety of the community is being served by certifying youth. In contrast to previous research, the current research finds that juveniles are being treated equivalently across race and sex predictors for certification decisions in Clark County, Nevada.