May 19, 2010
For more than 20 years, state
legislatures have come down increasingly hard on criminal minors, insisting
that they do "adult time for adult crimes." But some states are starting
to rethink that approach.
"In many cases, we believe in second chances for
kids," says Jerry Madden, a
Madden is a Republican who has worked with Democrats in
rewriting state laws regarding juvenile offenders.
There's mounting evidence that suggests juveniles should not be
held as culpable as adults because their physical and emotional development is
not complete. There are also studies showing that minors who are sentenced and
incarcerated in adult systems are more likely to commit further crimes — and
more violent crimes — than those in juvenile systems.
As a result, states — and the Supreme Court — are starting to
move away from ever-more punitive penalties for minors. "It's happening in
Issues Surrounding Maturity
Graham v. Florida represented the first
time that the Supreme Court has ruled that an entire category of sentencing —
outside of the death penalty — violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition
against cruel and unusual punishment. The case was a sequel, of sorts, to the
court's 2005 ruling in Roper v. Simmons that banned the death penalty for
juvenile offenders.
In both cases, the court pointed to signs that minors are not as
responsible for their actions as adults. Advanced brain scans show that the
parts of the brain that allow people to think through the likely consequences
of an action and weigh the risks and benefits of acting on impulse aren't fully
formed until 25 — much later than had been previously thought.
"A life without parole sentence improperly denies the
juvenile offender a chance to demonstrate growth and maturity," Justice
Anthony Kennedy wrote in the court's majority opinion.
The brain scans have gotten a lot of attention, but other data
have probably been more influential among legislators. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has found that youths who had previously been tried as
adults were 34 percent more likely to commit another crime than those who went
through the juvenile justice system. And crimes committed by juveniles, as
measured by arrests, have been going down consistently for 15 years.
States Peel Back Some Penalties
A few states have now softened penalties for minors. Like
But there has not been a wholesale shift away from treating
violent youths as adults. "When you're talking about extremely dangerous
violent offenses committed by older teens, there's a general trend to treat
them as adults in
Marquis doesn't think the Supreme Court's ruling will change
that. He says that he and other prosecutors "are not terribly disappointed
in this decision," precisely because it is fairly limited in scope.
The court's decision applies directly only to 129 offenders — 77
of them in
"The number of criminal defendants who were affected was
quite small," says Franklin Zimring, a law
professor at the
Making A 'Down Payment'
Still, Zimring says, "It's a very
important down payment on a more activist Supreme Court limiting what
governments can do in the punishment of offenders. This is a down payment on
what the court might do two or three judges down the line."
Other advocates for less onerous juvenile justice laws see the
court's willingness to strike down certain types of punishment for juveniles as
symptomatic of the broader trend already seen among states.
"In a symbolic sense, it's a strong statement from the
court that kids are different," says Marc Mauer,
executive director of The Sentencing Project, a liberal group. "It just
legitimizes the whole perspective that academics and practitioners have had for
years, which now has certification from the court."