Pathways of Transferred Youth Offenders into Adulthood

Abstract

In this article, the authors discuss the preliminary results of a Belgian research on 210 young offenders transferred to Adult Court in 1999, 2000 and 2001. The long-term judicial pathways of these youngsters, now aged between 30 and 40, are explored. Drawing on the criminal records and detention records of the sample, judicial pathways into adulthood are charted. The results show that the greater part of the sample is still involved in the criminal justice system. More than 50 per cent were convicted at some point in the last 3 years, and almost a third of the population is imprisoned. With this quite unfavourable picture of transferred offenders’ future pathways, we hope to reopen the discussion about transfer policies in Belgium.