In 1899 the first juvenile court system was established in the United States to sentence children who are also committing crimes, whether they are serious or minor, to get justice. During that time children has been viewed and tried as adults getting sentences like life without parole. In 2016 the U.S. Supreme Court issued several decisions to ban extreme adult sentences for children but some states are not exactly agreeing with this decision. Most states have banned juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences and the others states should do the same. There are so many factors on why children should not be giving such harsh sentences, one of the main reason is that research has shown a child brain is developed different from an adult, which causes them to identifying things in a different perspective such as the possible effects they can face after committing a crime.
Research has shown that the brain does not stop developing until an individual is in their early 20s. With that being said, some children may not develop a sense of remorse until they are older older so when they do things they don’t necessarily focus on the future, they act upon things from being in the heat of the moment and feel like they have no other option. Influences also play a major role in children brain development such as the area they grown up in, the way their parents raised them or even the way their school is ran which causes children to begin the familiar behavior and acting upon on it. If a child has been raised in a more urban area, where statistics have shown have a higher crime rate than suburban areas, it has been found to have a surprisingly significant impact on a child’s likelihood of being involved in the same delinquent behaviors. “Sociological theories of deviance hypothesize that disorganized neighborhoods have weak social control networks; that weak social control, resulting from isolation among residents and high residential turnover, allows criminal activity to go unmonitored.’ (Herrenkohl et al., 2001:221).
Juveniles to most likely be victimized will be the members of minority groups, migrants and people with limited economic means by the frustrated police officers in local communities. This particularly means the most people victimized will be african americans and latino. This means that even though juveniles as a whole are getting life sentences, african americans and latinos are getting harsher sentences while most of the time white offenders get things like probation and suspended sentences; suspended sentences happen when a judge waive the sentence a defendant received and allowed them to perform a period of probation instead. While 23.2% of juvenile arrests for murder involve an African American suspected of killing a white person, 42.4% of JLWOP sentences are for an African American convicted of this crime. White juvenile offenders with African American victims are only about half as likely (3.6%) to receive a JWLOP sentence as their proportion of arrests for killing an African American (6.4%) (Josh Rovner, 2018).
Black youth receives 10 times more life without parole sentences than white youth. Also the way how school can play a role in delinquent behavior is by being around a lot of other students who can potentially become bad influences by peer pressing them into doing stupid things like doing drugs, or causing interruptions in class that will most likely result in the child being suspended or even expelled which then gives them even more free time to go out and participate in devious behavior because they are bored at home. Parental guidance is another major factor on why children act the way they do, particularly children of parents with poor parenting skills, results in delinquent behavior from having their child exposed to drugs and weapons all the time they will start to think “since my parents are doing it I can do it” if they see their parents doing drugs they are obviously gonna start to think that’s normal behavior not knowing the causes they bring and by carrying an unlicensed weapon for one, is against the law, and two, having such a dangerous weapon feeling unstoppable will result in that child begging to commit serious crimes like armed robberies and could even lead to killing someone from a heated dispute all from thinking its ok to have a weapon just because they parents always had one with them. (Elliot Kanter, 2016).
An abusive home can result in the child themself being abusive towards others, in fact A 1991 source reported that studies indicate that 90 percent of maltreating adults were maltreated as children. Almost 7 million American infants receive child care services, such as day care, and much of that care is poor ( Gary Jensen Donald J. Shoemaker, 2013). Parents and caregivers play the most influential role in a child’s life, so by feeling unwanted and abused it can cause a range of emotional effects. Children who are constantly ignored, shamed, terrorized or humiliated suffer more, than the average child. Abused children can grow up experiencing insecurities, low self-esteem, and lack of development. Many abused children experience ongoing difficulties with trust, social withdrawal,and forming relationships that can affect the way they act in their community. Most juveniles who commit crimes are doing it from the anger of having low self esteem. All of these factors should be considered when sentencing a child life sentences especially when they are not offered the option of parole.
Research shows that solitary confinement can cause serious psychological and developmental harm to children, and can have a detrimental effect on one’s ability to rehabilitate. Having a child incarcerated for such a long period of time will make the situation worse. In some cases, they will become very depressed and after their depression it can lead to anger so when if in some instance when they are released, all that built up pain from being isolated will be taken on the community as soon as their released. People are now calling these mental effects Institutional Syndrome. Institutional syndrome refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills, which develop after a person has spent a long period living in prisons, or other remote institutions. In other words, individuals in institutions may be deprived (whether unintentionally or not) of independence and of responsibility, to the point that once they return to ‘outside life’ they are often unable to manage many of its demands; it has also been argued that institutionalized individuals become psychologically more prone to mental health problems. Individuals who suffer from institutional syndrome can face several kinds of difficulties upon returning to the community.
The lack of independence and responsibility for patients within institutions, along with the depressing and dehumanizing environment, can make it difficult for patients to live and work independently ( Alison Parker, 2005). The best option to help children fully understand from “right” and “wrong” without actually causing more harm to the situation would be rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is a less expensive and better solution that impact these offenders lives in a positive way and ensures they are less of a risk to the community. Mostly everyone is capable of being rehabilitated besides the rare offenders who refuse to or is just simply incapable of doing so. Scientific research helped to conclude that even youth who commit the most serious or violent crimes have the capacity to change. Because of their developmental immaturity, impetuousness, and susceptibility to negative peer influences, children are less blameworthy for their criminal conduct than adults. Research also shows that most youth will naturally grow out of criminal behavior by their mid-twenties.
Life without parole and other extremely lengthy sentences keep youth in prison well past the point at which they have been rehabilitated and well beyond any reasonable risk of re-offending (Juvenile Law Center, 2016). Many juveniles who have been rehabilitated are becoming leaders and setting a good example for people inside prison and even outside of prison if they were released and are learning how to work well with others in the job force as well. They are becoming leaders to the next generation and teaching them from right and wrong and relating their personal experiences to give a sense of how delinquent behavior will result in serious legal troubles that you will regret. In Conclusion, it should not be legal to give juveniles life sentences if there is multiple research showing the brain isn’t fully developed to understand the moral of things and if it is proven most of the offenders are better than they have ever been after being rehabilitated.
