What is the impact of transferring youths into the adult criminal justice system?

The What Works Centre has listed a new intervention on their What Works Crime Reduction Toolkit, which focusses on Transferring youths to the adult criminal justice system.

The research analyses whether youths who are transferred from a young offenders institution to an adult prison are more likely to reoffend in the future, concluding that they are around 30% more likely to commit a serious crime in the following two years after imprisonment, compared to youths who remain in the youth system.

However, the research is limited by the fact that young offenders, who are generally transferred to the adult system, tend to be those convicted of more serious crimes. Therefore, they are already at greater risk of reoffending in the future.

Nevertheless, the research has concluded that transferring youth offenders to the adult criminal justice system has not reduced cases of reoffending, and if anything, it is more likely for these youths to commit a serious crime again in the near future.

To find out more information about our own research on criminal justice, please click here.