CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR Mears / GETTING TOUGH WITH JUVENILE OFFENDERS GETTING TOUGH WITH JUVENILE OFFENDERS Explaining Support for Sanctioning Youths as Adults

Despite recent “get tough ” trends in juvenile justice, relatively little is known about support for sanctioning youths in adult courts. In response, this study examines several neglected explana-tory factors, including links between marital status, political orientation, and philosophy of pun-ishment. Analysis of data from the 1995 National Opinion Survey of Crime and Justice suggests that marital status and philosophy of punishment are consistently associated with support for adult sanctioning of youths when the offense involves any of three categories of offenses (selling illegal drugs, committing property crime, or committing violent crime). It also suggests that marital status conditions the effect of philosophy of punishment, an effect itself conditioned by political orientation when the offense involves selling illegal drugs. Research and policy impli-cations are discussed. In recent years, getting tough with juvenile offenders has become aprominent focus of reforms and political campaigns (Roberts & Stalans, 1998; Singer, 1996). Central to these efforts has been the increased expansion of laws enabling youths to be transferred from 206 AUTHOR’S NOTE: The data used in this study were made available by th