Adult Time for Adult Crime: Manufacturing Statistics for 19-Year-Old “Juveniles”

Cully Stimson / October 22, 2009

Nearly every report, newspaper article, editorial, and court brief on this topic states that there are 2,225 juvenile offenders serving life-without-parole sentences in the United States. Both the origin of that number and the way it has been used raise great concerns about the veracity of the facts supplied by activists seeking to put an end to the sentence.

Most sources cite the number to a 2005 Amnesty International/Human Rights Watch report. (One exception is the University of San Francisco Law School’s 2007 report, which states categorically that there are 2,381 juveniles serving life without parole. ) An investigation into the source of the AI/HRW number reveals serious flaws.

The beginning of an answer to the question of where this number originated can be found in Appendix B to the 2005 AI/HRW report. The report explains accurately that the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJ) do not collect data on the number of juvenile offenders in the adult criminal justice system. (more…)