Alison S. Burke

Gender and Justice: an Examination of Policy and Practice Regarding Judicial Waiver Alison S. Burke

The current study addressed the issues of gender and racial differences in judicial waiver decisions in one state. The study provides an examination of existing juvenile justice research, and augments a neglected area of research regarding girls and judicial waiver. The present research examines the variables that influence the judicial waiver decision for girls and explores the differences between girls and boys who were judicially waived to adult court. Utilizing juvenile court data from 1994 through 2000, the current findings provide a fairly complex portrait of the effects of several variables on judicial waiver. Based upon the variables that were tested in this study, it is suggests that increased delinquency prevention programs, such as truancy prevention and increased counseling services for girls, are warranted. The findings also indicate that future research about the transfer of girls to adult court is needed in order to attempt to understand fully the variables that influence judicial waiver.