snooggums , 1 month ago

Not every third degree felony is identical to every other third degree felony. There are ones where the circumstances of the case are going to warrant a longer sentence, and those are probably going to overlap with the ones where the circumstances of the case would warrant charging a juvenile as an adult.

You are assuming that what leads to a child being charged as an adult is the curcumstances of the crime, and that they will have a longer sentence for those lesser charges instead of different charges that reflect the sentence.

My assumption that the trend in this article is based on racism is because that is absolutely a thing that happens. Here’s an article that covers just how racist Florida is for charging minors in general and charging them as adults.

The number of direct file cases among Black teens is also disproportionate to the overall juvenile arrests.

In FY 2020-21, there were 19,086 juveniles arrested statewide; 46% were Black, 37% were white and 16% were Latinx.

Yet, Black juveniles comprised 61% of the children transferred to adult courts.

“The racial disparities in direct file cases are still real and significant, so that is a real problem,” McCoy said.