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Juveniles & The Death Penalty

            In our search for equality and fairness we have grossly overlooked and underestimated the consequences of the decisions we have made. Our country is one that prides itself on being a society based upon democracy and freedom. We lend our support overseas to those who long for basic human rights, while we deny those same rights to individuals here at home. But how can we impose economic sanctions against human rights violators abroad when we are violating international law and the human rights of children here at home? It is here that our hypocrisy becomes painfully apparent.
             The passage of Proposition 21 has changed California's juvenile justice system. The number of offenses for which 14 and 15 year olds can be tried as adults has increased; it requires that youth offenders 16 years of age and older that are convicted in adult court be sent directly to the Department of Corrections without first having been under the jurisdiction of the Youth Authority. Ethics of care allows me to have at least a little compassion for the juvenile facing time in adult prison, and let me tell you why. Incarcerating children with adults can have devastating results. According to the US Department of Justice, children incarcerated with adults are 8 times more likely to commit suicide; 5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted by an adult inmate; and 50 times more likely to be attacked with a weapon. .
             At first glance it may seem acceptable to subject a child to such an environment, especially the child perpetrator of a heinous crime. I am not without sympathy for those who have suffered at the hands of any offender(s). On the contrary, ethics of relativism allows me to view this issue on a case-by-case basis. I just believe that it is a big mistake to pass judgment strictly based on emotion and not logic or intellect. We cannot afford to justify such cruelty to children using an absolutist approach.


Essays Related to Juveniles & The Death Penalty

1. Death Penalty For Juveniles

... I have presented a mixture of opposing perceptions related to the question should juveniles receive the death penalty for capital offenses? A collection of questions will be answered, first what are the reasons for abolishing the death penalty? Secondly, why does the death penalty for juveniles remain? How often is the death penalty given to juveniles and what if any are the profiles of juveniles on death row? Lastly, is discrimination present when studying the juvenile death penalty in relation to age, race, mental ability, and ... human rights" influences on a local and international ...

  • Word Count: 4558
  • Approx Pages: 18
  • Has Bibliography

2. Juveniles and the Death Penalty

... upheld the death penalty sentence. While the Thompson plurality used the three-part analysis to determine if sentencing a juvenile offender to the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment, the Stanford plurality did not. The Stanford plurality rejected the third part of the test, namely, that the punishment is disproportionate to the severity of the crime and makes no measurable contribution to the deterrence of crime. Since the series of Supreme Court decisions upholding the use of the death penalty for juveniles ... abandon juvenile executions. Some legal arguments that ...

  • Word Count: 2175
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Death Penalty

... more prevalent; the courts are becoming less tolerant of youth offenders. Adolescents are not even spared capital punishment. The US Supreme Court has upheld the use of the death penalty for youth over sixteen. There are many arguments that support the use of the death penalty for juveniles. Peter Finn gives a overview of the most prominent arguments to use the death penalty in an article titled, " Cruel and Unusual Punishment", they include: the death penalty is the correct punishment ... for the most vicious crimes, weather they are committed by ... ...

  • Word Count: 2534
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Should Juveniles be Tried As Adults? (yes)

... record, all support of rehabilitation is eliminated (Feld 269). Another issue amongst dealing with trying juveniles as adults is a very serious one; the death penalty. It has been around in the United States since before the American Revolution when there were only Thirteen Colonies. In 1642, the first known execution of a minor in the "United States" was given to a sixteen year old boy for having sex with a horse ... is, if you commit a very serious and deadly crime, you are going to face severe legal consequences. However, the death penalty should not be given to juveniles, and really ...

  • Word Count: 3215
  • Approx Pages: 13
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Juveniles and the Death Penalty

... law considered a minor. However if a teenager tries to commit murder we charge them as an adult. The punishment shall fit the crime however, it should also fit the circumstance in which the crime was committed. Sentencing teens to the death penalty is cruel and unreasonable; therefore, juveniles should not be sentenced to the death penalty. Many people don't understand why some teens act out in an impulsive, irrational, or a dangerous way ... , "while half the states with the death penalty have homicide rates above the national average." In a state-by- state analysis, the Times found tha...

  • Word Count: 2202
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Death penalty

... 2000, only four countires have excuted juveniles. They are the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), Iran, Pakistan and the U.S. This year, the DRC established a moratorium on executions, Pakistan abolished the death penalty for juveniles and Iran announced that it is preparing to do the same. -At least 160 children (Age 18 and Under) have been sentenced to death in the U.S. since 1973. Alternatives -If California replaced the death penalty with a sentence of Life Without ... Parole, the state would save more than $90 milllion a year ... ...

  • Word Count: 352
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Should Juveniles Be Subject To The Death Penalty?

... committed per 100,000 people in 1994. The average murder rates among death penalty states were 8.0, and the average among non-death penalty states was 4.4 (Notis 122). A similar study in 1958 headed by researcher Thorstein Sellin also yielded similar results. Given the facts made available to me, I found that the death penalty does not deter crime, and it certainly does not deter juveniles from murder because more times than not, they ... respect for human life, he guided Malvo's anger and taught him how to kill. Juveniles are more susceptible to outside influences and this can work in ...

  • Word Count: 2096
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Criminal Justice and the Death Penalty

... : murder, terrorism, or more excessive crimes that make lives difficult for the victim. A criminal should not be sentenced to the death penalty if they are under the age of 18 or mentally ill. I do not think juveniles should even be put in jail for the crimes they committed, unless the crime is absurd. Juveniles should not be tried for the death penalty, and they should never be able to be put on ... death row. I like the ruling of Roper v. Simmons because of the rule that was put in ... place. The prison population is through the roof. In 2008, there were 2,418 ... ...

  • Word Count: 1380
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

9. The Death Penalty Controversy

... capital punishment for people convicted of murder, according to a 2007 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. In 2005, the Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons struck down the death penalty for juveniles. 22 defendants had been executed for crimes committed as juveniles since 1976. In 2002, the Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that it is unconstitutional to execute ... of confidence in the death penalty is being echoed by representatives of victims' groups, by former supporters of the death penalty, and in the editori...

  • Word Count: 1875
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography

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