From this perspective, the fact that incarceration of a young juvenile with adult criminals might only serve to increase recidivism, and does not generally serve to rehabilitate young offenders is not relevant to the fact that the overall good as been served. ... Similarly, Jeffrey Fagan, director for the Center for Violence Research and Presentation at Columbia University, in a study of fifteen and sixteen-year-old felons found that minors tried in adult courts had higher rates of recidivism than those tried in juvenile courts for similar crimes (Anonymous 2). ...
If they were, containing recidivism could much more effectively be accomplished by castrating sex offenders, removing the limbs of major larsons, placing constant surveillance on swindlers, etc (in other words, still proportional punishment, but punishment geared towards preventing recurrence, rather than original deterrence). ...