Juvenile Justice System and Risk Factor Data - Illinois Criminal ...

these juveniles unless a juvenile court judge is able to make a finding based on clear and
convincing evidence that the youth is amenable to the care, treatment, and training programs
available through the facilities of the juvenile court [705 ILCS 405/5-805(2)].
A motion for discretionary transfer is made by the state’s attorney to allow for prosecution of a
youth 13 years of age or older under criminal laws. While there are no specific offenses
associated with a discretionary transfer, the court will consider many factors before granting such
a transfer, including the seriousness of the offense and the minor’s prior record of delinquency
[705 ILCS 405/5-805(3)].
The Administrative Office of Illinois Courts (AOIC) was the primary source of data on youth
transferred to adult court in Illinois. Until 1999, AOIC collected aggregate-level information on
the number of youth transferred to criminal court. Due to the manner in which these data were
collected, however, it was not possible to determine the offenses for which the transfers took
place, case sentencing following the transfer, or the demographic characteristics of the youth
transferred. AOIC discontinued the reporting of these data in 1999.
The Juvenile Monitoring Information System (JMIS) contains juvenile transfer data. However,
JMIS can only provide the numbers of detained youth who were transferred to criminal court, but
it is likely that the data can provide a reasonable approximation of the number of transfer cases
outside of Cook County. The Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center began
reporting to JMIS in 2007, however, they did not report transfer information. Therefore, transfer
data for Cook County were unavailable. Transfers reported to JMIS are shown in the data tables
section in Appendix H.
Data summary
In 2007, 88 detained youth between the ages of 10 and 16 were transferred to the adult criminal
court in counties outside of Cook. In 2007, the counties with the most youth transfers, excluding
Cook County, were Jefferson (11), McLean (7), Lake (6), and Peoria (6). DuPage and Wabash
each had five transfers. Based on available data, the use of transfers to adult court is generally
foun d in counties with large, urban populations. However, there are possible errors in the number
of transfers reported by southern counties that admit youth to the Franklin County Detention
Center’s non-secure wing. JMIS does not distinguish between secure and non-secure detainment,
and th e Franklin County Detention Center classifies youth in its non-secure center as transfers.
Therefore, it is not possible to determine which juveniles categorized as being transferred to the
adult court from Franklin County Detention Center are truly transferred and which are being
detained in the non-secure wing. Map 5 depicts the number of transfers of detained youth to
adult court by county in 2007.
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