In response to pockets of crime and sensational media coverage, the White House has escalated its rhetoric and policy push to “get tough” on juvenile offenders, particularly in Washington, D.C. This includes calls to prosecute children as young as 14 as adults and efforts to repeal successful “second look” laws that allow incarcerated youth to prove their rehabilitation. The moves are packaged as common-sense measures to protect public safety.
But the sales pitch is a con. History and decades of rigorous research prove that this fear-driven approach is not just cruel—it’s counterproductive, like trying to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it.
Image generated with ChatGPT/DALL·E (OpenAI) with the following direction by the author: “A poster depicting a hand holding the bar of a jail cell with the words ‘Why the Get Tough Approach to Juvenile Crime Fails Everyone” October 2, 2025.
Ignoring the Facts
The rhetoric crumbles under the weight of reality. As journalist Nell Bernstein notes, youth arrests nationwide have plummeted by roughly 75% since their peak in 1996. In D.C., crime is at a 30-year low. Yet, just as Princeton professor John J. DiIulio’s infamous “super-predator” theory sparked a moral panic in the 1990s, today’s leaders are dusting off the same fearmongering script—hoping the public has forgotten how the movie ends.
Back then, the panic led to laws in more than 20 states that prosecuted children as adults. The promised crime wave never came. What did come were destroyed futures, overcrowded prisons, and broken communities. Even DiIulio himself has expressed remorse, recognizing that his words fueled policies that treated children as monsters and left scars on a generation.
Demonizing Children
When Trump’s handpicked U.S. Attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, declared, “I know evil when I see it, no matter the age,” she wasn’t speaking law—she was speaking fear. It is a philosophy that views kids not as developing humans but as disposable threats. And its impact is clear: Black youth, who already account for more than 93% of youth arrests in D.C., are the ones overwhelmingly funneled into this pipeline of despair. The rhetoric becomes a hammer, and Black children become the nails.
The Evidence We Can’t Ignore
The “get tough” strategy is based on a false promise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed decades of data and concluded what experts like Vincent Schiraldi have long warned: transferring kids into adult court does not deter crime. It accelerates it.
The difference is stark. The juvenile system, flawed as it may be, is built around rehabilitation. Kids there go to school, play in after-school leagues, and receive aftercare. Adult prisons offer none of this. They are designed for punishment, not development. To place a child there is to hand them a script titled How to Fail at Life and force them to perform it. It’s less a sentence than a prophecy.
What I Saw From the Bench
I know this not just from research, but from my own time on the bench. I once presided over the case of a 16-year-old named Oscar, charged with armed robbery. By law, he faced 20 years in adult prison. On paper, the sentence “fit the crime.” But it did not fit the kid. Oscar was bright, articulate, and respectful — a teenager who had made a profoundly stupid, dangerous choice, but who was not beyond redemption.
Sending him to adult prison would have written a tragic script: one more child transformed from a reckless adolescent into a hardened criminal. Instead, Oscar entered a collaborative program we built — what I called a “Second Chance” court. There, he spent two years reprogramming his life. He graduated high school, saved a bus driver in distress, joined ROTC, swam competitively, and now contributes to society as a taxpaying citizen.
The numbers bear out Oscar’s story. In Georgia, 65% of youth return from prison to commit new crimes. By contrast, our “Second Chance” program saw failure rates of only 26%. That is not softness — that is real safety.
D.C. as a Testing Ground for Cruelty
The irony is that D.C. already leads the nation in youth incarceration—its rate is three times the national average. The U.S. Attorney already has sweeping powers to move 16- and 17-year-olds into adult court, powers broader than in 48 other states. This isn’t about plugging gaps in accountability. It’s about turning the screws tighter, creating a policy so punitive it would be out of place in most of the country.
Public Opinion Has Moved On
The good news is that Americans are no longer buying the snake oil. A recent survey of violent crime victims revealed that most favor prevention and community investment over longer prison sentences. They want jobs, housing, and treatment—not more young lives thrown away in adult prisons. Criminologists agree: the most effective strategy is to focus deterrence and services on the small fraction of individuals driving serious violence, while investing in after-school programs and summer jobs to keep kids occupied during the peak crime window of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Choosing Facts Over Fear
The administration’s push to repeal reforms and resurrect the failed policies of the 1990s is not leadership. It is political theater—a siren song of cruelty that promises safety while dragging us toward the rocks.
True public safety is not forged by treating children as lost causes. It is built by insisting on the harder, steadier work of rehabilitation, prevention, and community support. Anything else is not just short-sighted—it is a betrayal of both justice and common sense.
Steven Teske is a retired judge of 23 years serving in juvenile and superior courts. He has testified before Congress on four occasions and many state legislatures on best practices in juvenile justice. He served on the Federal Advisory for Juvenile Justice which advises the President and Congress, and was appointed by Georgia governors to several state boards including the Commission on Criminal Justice Reform, Child Welfare Reform Council, Commission on Family Violence, Children & Youth Coordinating Council, Governor’s Office of Children and Family, Judicial Advisory Council, and the Juvenile Justice State Advisory Group. He is a past president of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges. He has his Masters in Political Science and Juris Doctor degrees.
Thanks, Steve, for this insightful, fact-based look at the administration’s willingness to target children in its zeal to appear tough on crime.
Please keep sharing this message! People learned nothing from the knee-jerk, punitive responses of the 90’s, that failed so spectacularly! As a society, we cannot continue cutting funding for the education system, after-school programs, summer camps, and non-profit organizations and then turnaround and severely punish the youth we all let down. It’s cruel and ineffective! We need to stop giving wealthy companies handouts and start giving it to our future!