“The emerging research is even stronger that juveniles are not as developed as adults,” Gibson says. “They don’t get it. They have a shorter term perspective, don’t assess risk properly and are mentally less developed.”
When these children do break the law, their fate is often determined more by politics than policy, she says.
Recent high-profile cases involving teens, such as the case of 17-year-old Washington, D.C., sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, have shifted the nation’s perception of juvenile justice. “We have been sending more juveniles at younger ages into the adult system,” says Gibson. “It used to be a lot like civil court; very informal. But now it’s more adversarial. That has happened because the political winds of the day have changed from rehabilitating to ‘just desserts — do the crime, do the time.’”
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roper v. Simmons, ruled that persons under 18 years of age could no longer be sen-tenced to death — perhaps indicating movement to a more rehabilitative approach.
“Treatment is a good thing. A juvenile can be saved,” Gibson says.
— By Christina Asquith
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
