PROPOSITION 21 JUVENILE CRIME

State of California: Proposition 21 Juvenile Crime (Public Law 2000)

Abstract

Proposition 21 - the Runner Initiative, or the Police and Law Enforcement Funding, Criminal Penalties and Laws, Initiative Statute - will be on the California ballot in November. But it's only the latest in a string of ballot propositions that change the way juveniles offenders are tried and sentenced in California. Many of the initiatives have had unintended effects - racial disparities, more punitive sentences for juveniles than adults, and more juveniles serving sentenced to life without parole than anywhere else in the world. Advocates say California needs to reverse this trend, but victims' advocates and some law enforcement groups say the effort is the latest necessity in the war on violent juvenile crime. The data for this paper comes from a mixture of both primary and secondary literature sources.

Table of Contents

Abstract2

Introduction4

Research Question/Thesis Statement:6

Literature Review7

Methodology10

Correlated School Effects12

Correlated Individual Effects13

Endogenous Network Formation/Correlated Effects13

Results and Discussion14

Conclusion and Policy Implications16

References18

Annotated Bibliography20

State of California: Proposition 21 Juvenile Crime (Public Law 2000)

Introduction

It was July 26, 1996, the day before his 12th birthday, and Davon Murdock was looking for something to do. He was close to home - hanging out with his friends around the corner from the apartment he shared with his mother in the Nickerson Gardens housing project in South Los Angeles - but that didn't stop him from getting into trouble. It wouldn't be the first time that Murdock had a run-in with the law.

The slightly built boy was already on probation. But even the most cynical judge or probation officer couldn't have predicted what would happen that Friday. Before Murdock turned twelve he would be involved in a violent gang rape and a cold-blooded murder. What happened in the 1300 block of 111th street that night was about more than Murdock (Chakreborty, 2002).

It was about more than his co-defendants; and even about more than his victims. Murdock's crime, arrest and resulting sentence are chapters in a larger story. The story of how juvenile justice policy, through a series of legislative efforts and increasingly through ballot-based initiatives, is made and changed in California. But Murdock's individual story is this: He, accompanied by at least five friends that ranged in age from 12 to 20, lured a 13-year-old girl into a deserted house on 111th Street.

Once she was inside, they dragged her to a boarded-up bedroom where they tortured and raped her for close to two hours. When they were finished, they locked her in a closet, pulled the soiled mattress outside and set fire to both the bedding and the building to destroy all evidence of their attack. Dumar Stokes, 33, was staying with his grandmother next door and came outside when he smelled the smoke. He asked the boys to put the fire out but retreated indoors to retrieve his own firearm when one pulled a gun.

While he was inside, his 82-year-old grandmother Viola McClain walked onto the ...