Recently, in Korean society, due to the heinous crimes committed by juveniles, harsh punishments of juveniles, including lowering the age of juvenile transfer to adult court have been strongly called for. However, these arguments have been raised under the lack of systematic research on the effectiveness of severe punishment and juvenile criminalization. The purpose of this study is to examine research on the effectiveness of juvenile waiver system conducted in U.S., which experienced similar situation. Research review indicates that juvenile transfer system was not effective in reducing recidivism and rather produced contrary result, increased recidivism. In addition, meta-analysis of effective interventions for juvenile delinquents demonstrated that therapeutic and restorative approaches are more effective than punitive ones. Thus, movements of decreasing use of juvenile waiver system and lowering age of criminal liability have been initiated in several U.S states, including New Jersey, New York, and Illinois. Based on research review, the current study maintains that systematic official data on recidivism of juveniles in Korean transfer system needs to be established and research on the effectiveness of juvenile transfer system needs to be conducted prior to introducing punitive approach toward juveniles.