To read this report on the Juvenile Justice Initiative website, click here.
Illinois allows children under the age of 18 to be tried in adult criminal proceedings without a meaningful judicial review prior removing a child from juvenile court jurisdiction. Children are developmentally and biologically different from adults; therefore decisions about their rehabilitation must be carefully considered. Illinois is now one of only 14 states with no ability for individual review, either in juvenile or adult court, of the decision to try a child in adult court.
Juvenile Justice Initiative examined individual cases of over 250 children who were automatically prosecuted as adults in Cook County from 2010 to 2012.