New York Times — A 7-Year-Old Was Accused of Rape. Is Arresting Him the Answer?

There appears to be little, if any, organized opposition to raising the age of delinquency. But those who resist say doing so would hamstring the legal system, according to Jeffrey A. Butts, the director of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s Research and Evaluation Center. In rare cases involving a particularly dangerous child, he said, incarceration may prevent them from being a risk to others. Continue reading New York Times — A 7-Year-Old Was Accused of Rape. Is Arresting Him the Answer?

New York Post — Teen Busted Nine Times Could Get Sweetheart Deal — For Graduating High School

“In general, courts and legislatures do tend to leave a little wiggle room for judicial interpretation, and of course prosecutors always hate that,” said Jeffrey Butts, head of the Research Evaluation Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “Anytime you’re dealing with someone who is young you need to allow for the possibility that, even at 22, not everyone is a fully functional adult and sometimes they make rash decisions.” Continue reading New York Post — Teen Busted Nine Times Could Get Sweetheart Deal — For Graduating High School

Teen Courts — Do They Work and Why?

Jeffrey A. Butts and Jennifer Ortiz (2011). Teen courts — Do they work and why? New York State Bar Association Journal, 83(1): 18-21. Despite their popularity, there are many unanswered questions about the effectiveness of teen courts. The overall impression one gets from the evaluation literature is positive, but researchers have yet to identify exactly why teen courts work. Most important, studies have not yet investigated … Continue reading Teen Courts — Do They Work and Why?