Youngsters accused of certain non-violent sexual offenses can avoid being prosecuted as an adult under legislation signed by Governor Janet Napolitano this month.
The same measure also requires age-appropriate treatment for juveniles, a move that supporters said would aid in rehabilitating them.
The governor signed the measure, S1628, into law on May 1.
Fueling the issue is the overriding belief that children, in many cases, should not be treated as adults.
The law applies to a person 21 years or younger who has committed a sex offense but not through the use of or threat to use a deadly weapon.
Sen. Karen Johnson, R-18, said during the four years that she has been involved in the issue, she has learned of young lives ruined by what youth advocates describe as harsh laws.
“We’re talking about inappropriate touching,” she said. “To have it ruin a child’s life is horrendous.”
“We’ve had a suicide over this because there is no hope for these kids at all. And this now gives them some hope,” she said.
Major provisions
The bill has three major provisions.
One is that it requires youth sex offenders to be placed in a treatment program, if group treatment is prescribed, among peers with similar offenses. That treatment must comply with certain ethical requirements and not include the use of obscene images.
This plucks a youth from a group that perhaps includes adult predators and “serious perverts,” according to Johnson.
The second is that it requires the court, at the request of the offender, to conduct a hearing at least once a year to determine whether to continue or terminate the probation, whether to end one’s registration as a sex offender, and whether to defer or terminate community notification.
This applies to a probationer who is under 22 and was convicted of an offense before turning 18.
The third provision states that if a juvenile is being prosecuted as an adult at the discretion of the prosecutor, the defendant can ask the court to hold a hearing to determine if jurisdiction should be transferred to a juvenile court. The court must also hold a hearing if the offense was committed more than a year before the date that criminal charges were filed. The court can initiate this hearing on its own.
If the court finds “by clear and convincing evidence” that public safety and the rehabilitation of a juvenile is best served by transferring the youth to a juvenile court, then the judge shall order the transfer, according to the bill.
Backers: Kids different from adult sex offenders
Supporters hailed this as a genuine example of progress in the criminal justice system.
“It’s a step in the right direction because we really, truly believe that it will enhance community safety and allow for youth rehab,” said Beth Rosenberg, director of Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice of the Children’s Action Alliance.
Courts also have more information about a case and are therefore more objective in deciding where to try the juvenile, Rosenberg added.
In a position paper sent to the Arizona Capitol Times, Rosenberg’s group emphasized that children charged with sexual offenses are different from adult sex offenders. Their psychological make up is in a state of flux. That is also why they are receptive to rehabilitation, she said.
But treating them as adults deprives them of opportunities to live normal lives later on and plunges them into lifelong sex offender registration and probationary rules designed for older men and women, the group said.
The group also offered figures and observations:
• More than 90 percent of arrests represent a one-time event. Studies show a lower rate of recidivism among juvenile offenders.
• Children who engage in sexually inappropriate behavior usually do not grow to become adult offenders. Psychiatrists and experts agree that their behavior “does not indicate a permanent problem.”
Donna Hamm, another prison advocate, called the bill’s enactment a “very important example of genuine progress in the criminal justice system.”
Johnson said that in some cases the offenders and victims know each other, maybe siblings or neighbors, and in other cases victims themselves have indicated that they do not want the offenders put on lifetime registry.
Perhaps more importantly, the signed bill gives the courts more latitude in dealing with juveniles, supporters said.
In 1996, Arizona voters passed a ballot initiative requiring that children 15 years and older charged with certain violent crimes be prosecuted as adults. The next year, lawmakers gave county attorneys the sole discretion to prosecute many more children as adults, including those as young as 14 accused of a wider variety of crimes, including consensual sex between juveniles, according to the Children’s Action Alliance.
“I am not for mandatory sentencing. I don’t always agree with judges and I have a problem with a lot of things that have had happened with what I call judicial supremacy. However, in a lot of these situations, we just are going to have to rely on the judges and give them more discretion in these cases,” Johnson said.