State juvenile courts with delinquency jurisdiction handle cases in which juveniles are accused of acts that would be crimes if adults 
committed them. 
In 45 states, the maximum age of juvenile court jurisdiction is age 17. Five states– Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, and 
Wisconsin–now draw the juvenile/adult line at age 16. 
However, all states have transfer laws that allow or require young offenders to be prosecuted as adults for more serious offenses, 
regardless of their age 
 
In addition to increasing transfer mechanisms, at least 13 states lowered the age of majority to 15, 16, and 
17, which allowed the youth of these ages to be automatically tried in adult criminal courts. These were 
supposed to provide procedures that curbed only the worst of the worst offenders, however, these 
provisions increased the prosecution of all juvenile offenders and youth of color in particular. 
Ted Talks: Alice Goffman In the United States, two institutions guide teenagers on the journey to 
adulthood: college and prison. Sociologist Alice Goffman spent six years in a troubled Philadelphia 
neighborhood and saw first-hand how teenagers of African-American and Latino backgrounds are 
funneled down the path to prison — sometimes starting with relatively minor infractions. In an 
impassioned talk she asks, “Why are we offering only handcuffs and jail time?” https://www.ted.com/talks/
alice_goffman_college_or_prison_two_destinies_one_blatant_injustice?language=en 
ALISON S. BURKE, DAVID CARTER, BRIAN FEDOREK, TIFFANY MOREY, LORE RUTZ-BURRI, AND SHANELL
SANCHEZ
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