Across the country, thousands of children are pushed into the adult criminal justice system through a practice known as automatic charging. In 28 states and Washington, D.C., certain charges and age thresholds require prosecutors to file cases against youth directly in adult court—without any meaningful judicial review. This policy ignores decades of research on adolescent development and undermines the very purpose of the juvenile justice system: rehabilitation, not punishment.
Youth are different from adults. Their brains—particularly the areas responsible for impulse control, decision-making, and emotional regulation—are still developing. The juvenile system is designed to account for these realities by offering developmentally appropriate services, education, and treatment. Automatic charging bypasses those protections entirely, exposing children to adult courts, harsher sentences, and incarceration in dangerous adult facilities. The result is worse outcomes for youth and increased risk to public safety, as studies consistently show that youth charged as adults are more likely to reoffend—and to commit more serious offenses—than similarly situated youth kept in juvenile court.
The racial disparities are staggering. In multiple states, the overwhelming majority of youth charged as adults are Black or Latino. These disparities reflect the same systemic biases seen throughout the criminal legal system, magnified by laws that rely solely on the charged offense rather than the child’s background, trauma history, or capacity for rehabilitation.
Automatic charging is also an inefficient and unjust decision-making tool. It relies on limited information at the charging stage and strips juvenile court judges—who are trained to assess youth development and individualized circumstances—of their role entirely. While some states allow “reverse waivers” to send cases back to juvenile court, that relief is far from guaranteed and often comes too late.
The decline in youth incarceration over the past several decades shows that progress is possible. Automatically charging children as adults reverses that progress and perpetuates harm. From a defense perspective, these cases demand early, aggressive advocacy to challenge adult court jurisdiction and fight for outcomes that recognize youth for what they are: children deserving of a chance at rehabilitation, not lifelong punishment.