We find that trends in juvenile and young adult homicide responsibility rates are highly correlated. This correlation
is well beyond simple statistical significance. If the juvenile-specific legislative changes during the early- to
mid-1990s were a unique deterrent to juvenile crime, we would not expect to see juvenile homicide rates correlate so
closely with the homicide rates of other age cohorts. Theoretically, if these laws acted as a unique and effective deterrent
to juvenile violence, the two trends should be least correlated after the national passage of “get-tough” juvenile
justice reforms. As Table 1 shows, the two trends are actually more closely correlated after the passage of the juvenile-
specific legislation. Thus, we conclude that these laws did little to uniquely deter juvenile offenders.