PRESERVATION OF public safety is among the most important duties of a governor. But two measures being championed by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) would do little to tamp down violent crime and would represent a step backward in the commonwealth’s dealings with juveniles who run into trouble with the law.
The first proposal, introduced in this year’s legislative session as part of the governor’s criminal justice package, would pave the way for more juveniles as young as 14 years of age to be tried as adults. Virginia law already gives judges the discretion to transfer minors charged with felonies into adult courts; it also already gives prosecutors the power to initiate proceedings to move minors to adult venues. Mr. McDonnell’s proposal, however, would increase the circumstances under which minors must be prosecuted as adults; it would also give prosecutors even more latitude in seeking to move juveniles into the adult system. For example, the proposal would allow prosecutors, for the first time, to seek adult prosecution of a minor charged with a second offense of selling marijuana. The sale of contraband is, of course, illegal, but it is not the kind of violent crime that should be considered a possible trigger for throwing a child into the adult system.
A second proposal by Mr. McDonnell is just as troubling, requiring that minors guilty of the most serious sexual offenses be listed on a public registry of sex offenders once they are released. Minors as young as 13 could find themselves on the registry for decades or even conceivably for the rest of their lives even if they never reoffend. Juvenile-justice activists and advocates for victims of sexual assault say that many of these young perpetrators have themselves been victims of sexual abuse. Juveniles who commit sexual offenses are also less likely to recidivate than adult offenders, they say. This does not forgive their crimes, but it does argue for a dramatically different approach than placing a child on a public registry and all but dooming his chances of ever becoming a fully integrated and productive member of society.
Maryland, whose registry program was blessed last summer by the Justice Department, has a better approach: Minors who commit sex offenses are placed on registries accessible only to law enforcement agencies; juveniles are dropped from the registry when their cases are closed and if they have not reoffended. Virginia lawmakers should embrace this model, which allows law enforcement to monitor offenders while giving them a chance at a future.
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