Synopses & Reviews
During the 1990s, almost every state changed its laws so that youths charged with serious crimes could be tried and punished as though they were adults. But do youths have the maturity to participate as defendants in their trials in adult criminal courts? Are they equally as culpable as adults when they commit the same offenses?
In Youth on Trial, experts in psychology and law-affiliates of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice-take a developmental perspective to examine these important questions. They reach troubling conclusions and suggest the need for substantial reform in law, public policy, and practice regarding youthful offenders.
Part I offers a foundation for a developmental perspective on juvenile justice. In Part II, the contributors take aim at the presumption that youths are capable of participating meaningfully in their trials in adult criminal courts based simply on the fact that they are charged with serious offenses. Theory and research from psychology, psychiatry, and law are brought to bear on questions of youths' capacities to understand and decide important matters as defendants in their trials. Contributors also review the challenges that youths' immaturity presents for their attorneys, as well as clinical and forensic issues in assessing youths' competence to stand trial.
Part III focuses on questions of culpability and mitigation. If youth are to be punished like adults, they should be equally blameworthy with regard to the manner in which their offenses were committed. The contributors address this issue by drawing on pertinent legal precedent and theory, as well as empirical knowledge of the psychological and social capacities of youth relative to those of adults. Are youth enough like adults to make appropriate a punitive response that equals the sentences that adults would receive?
Underlying the entire work is the assumption that an effective legal response to youthful offenders cannot ignore the developmental realities of adolescence. Youth on Trial makes a compelling call, based on sound legal and psychological arguments, to introduce developmentally sensitive public policy into our juvenile justice system.
Review
"It is refreshing to read a publication that is truly original, innovative, and challenging, addressing as it does all aspects and all stages of the impact of the legal process on adolescents."
--Alan M. Goldstein - Journal of Psychiatry and Law
Review
"This major contribution to the field of juvenile justice opens a door that has needed opening. . . . Thanks to Grisso, Schwartz, and their colleagues and the MacArthur Network, perhaps there ultimately will be a kinder, gentler nation, at least as far as juvenile offenders are concerned."
--Photography Collector
Review
“After meticulously presenting competency and development issues faced by youth . . . the book moves to a solution-focused orientation that will be appreciated by academicians and practitioners. Readers interested in mental health issues of youths are provided a litany of literature, data, research, and tools that offer a better understanding and approach to a fairer justice process for juveniles. The book refreshingly becomes a ‘how to manual for lawyers, judges, parents, and even youth interested in applying the developmental perspective. . . . A must-read for any student of juvenile justice, as it is a prelude to the inclusion of developmental psychology into the juvenile justice field." --Susan Bailey - Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Synopsis
It is often said that a teen "old enough to do the crime is old enough to do the time," but are teens really mature and capable enough to participate fully and fairly in adult criminal court? In this bookthe fruit of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justicea wide range of leaders in developmental psychology and law combine their expertise to investigate the current limitations of our youth policy. The first part of the book establishes a developmental perspective on juvenile justice; the second and third parts then apply this perspective to issues of adolescents' capacities as trial defendants and questions of legal culpability. Underlying the entire work is the assumption that an enlightened juvenile justice system cannot ignore the developmental psychological realities of adolescence.
Not only a state-of-the-art assessment of the conceptual and empirical issues in the forensic assessment of youth, Youth on Trial is also a call to reintroduce sound, humane public policy into our justice system..
Contributors: Richard Barnum, Richard J. Bonnie, Emily Buss, Elizabeth Cauffman, Gary L. Crippen, Jeffrey Fagan, Barry C. Feld, Sandra Graham, Thomas Grisso, Colleen Halliday, Alan E. Kazdin, N. Dickon Reppucci, Robert G. Schwartz, Elizabeth Scott, Laurence Steinberg, Ann Tobey, Jennifer L. Woolard, Franklin E. Zimring
Synopsis
It is often said that a teen "old enough to do the crime is old enough to do the time," but are teens really mature and capable enough to participate fully and fairly in adult criminal court? In this book—the fruit of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice—a wide range of leaders in developmental psychology and law combine their expertise to investigate the current limitations of our youth policy. The first part of the book establishes a developmental perspective on juvenile justice; the second and third parts then apply this perspective to issues of adolescents' capacities as trial defendants and questions of legal culpability. Underlying the entire work is the assumption that an enlightened juvenile justice system cannot ignore the developmental psychological realities of adolescence.
Not only a state-of-the-art assessment of the conceptual and empirical issues in the forensic assessment of youth, Youth on Trial is also a call to reintroduce sound, humane public policy into our justice system..
Contributors: Richard Barnum, Richard J. Bonnie, Emily Buss, Elizabeth Cauffman, Gary L. Crippen, Jeffrey Fagan, Barry C. Feld, Sandra Graham, Thomas Grisso, Colleen Halliday, Alan E. Kazdin, N. Dickon Reppucci, Robert G. Schwartz, Elizabeth Scott, Laurence Steinberg, Ann Tobey, Jennifer L. Woolard, Franklin E. Zimring
Synopsis
It is often said that a teen old enough to do the crime is old enough to do the time, but are teens really mature and capable enough to participate fully and fairly in adult criminal court? In this book--the fruit of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice--a wide range of leaders in developmental psychology and law combine their expertise to investigate the current limitations of our youth policy. The first part of the book establishes a developmental perspective on juvenile justice; the second and third parts then apply this perspective to issues of adolescents' capacities as trial defendants and questions of legal culpability. Underlying the entire work is the assumption that an enlightened juvenile justice system cannot ignore the developmental psychological realities of adolescence.
Not only a state-of-the-art assessment of the conceptual and empirical issues in the forensic assessment of youth, Youth on Trial is also a call to reintroduce sound, humane public policy into our justice system..
Contributors: Richard Barnum, Richard J. Bonnie, Emily Buss, Elizabeth Cauffman, Gary L. Crippen, Jeffrey Fagan, Barry C. Feld, Sandra Graham, Thomas Grisso, Colleen Halliday, Alan E. Kazdin, N. Dickon Reppucci, Robert G. Schwartz, Elizabeth Scott, Laurence Steinberg, Ann Tobey, Jennifer L. Woolard, Franklin E. Zimring
Synopsis
In Youth on Trial, a wide range of leaders in developmental psychology and law combine their expertise to investigate the limitations of our youth policy—including the problematic trend of trying alleged juvenile criminals as adults.
About the Author
Thomas Grisso is a professor of psychiatry (clinical psychology) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Robert G. Schwartz is the executive director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: A Developmental Perspective on Juvenile Justice
Introduction
1 Developmental Psychology Goes to Court
2 Adolescent Development, Mental Disorders, and Decision making of Delinquent Youths
Part II:Adolescents' Capacities as Trial Defendants
Introduction
3 Adjudicative Competence and Youthful Offenders
4 Juveniles' Waiver of Legal Rights:Confessions, Miranda, and the Right to Counsel
5 What We Know about Youths' Capacities as Trial Dependants
6 Researching Juveniles' Capacities as Dependants
7 Clinical and Forensic Evaluation of Competence to Stand Trial in Juvenile Defendants
8 Youths' Trial Participation as Seen by Youths and Their Attorneys: An Exploration of Competence-Based Issues
9 The Role of Lawyers in Promoting Juveniles' Competence as Defendants
Part III:Culpability and Youths' Capacities
Introduction
10 Penal Proportionality for the Young Offender:Notes on Immaturity, Capacity, and Diminished Responsibility
11 Criminal Responsibility in Adolescence: Lessons from Developmental Psychology
12 Researching Adolescents' Judgment and Culpability
13 The Social Cognitive(Attributional) Perspective on Culpability in Adolescent Offenders
14 Contexts of Choice by Adolescents in Criminal Events
15 Can the Courts Fairly Account for the Diminished Competence and Culpability of Juveniles? A Judge's Perspective
Epilogue
Contributors
Subject Index
Author Index