Youth on Trial A Developmental Perspective on Juvenile Justice

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.Grisso, Thomas is the author of 'Youth on Trial A Developmental Perspective on Juvenile Justice', published 2000 under ISBN 9780226309125 and ISBN 0226309126.