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Disparities on the Sentencing of Convicted Children:
The recent sentencing of convicted children and the high-contrast prosecution of the cases by the states is a demonstration of how broken the United States juvenile justice system has become in the recent past. Even though the state-to-state variations of the juvenile justice system have been in existence since the system was developed in 1899, the current disparities are so wide to an extent that they have raised concerns regarding fairness. These concerns have particularly been raised because of the various examples of discrepancies on the sentencing of convicted children across the states. For instance, a juvenile convicted for stabbing a boy to death in Massachusetts could be sentenced to seven years in juvenile jail while a juvenile convicted of causing the death of a girl in Florida can be sentenced to life without parole in an adult prison. These two cases of sentencing of convicted children may be indicators of the extreme results of juvenile justice law though other examples thrive.
Generally, there are huge disparities on...
In relation to these discrepancies, one of the concerns that have been raised by people is justice by geography with which children convicted of similar crimes are treated very differently (Axtman, 2001). The main reason attributed to this huge difference is that laws differ widely, which results in the difference in the decision-making with regards to sending convicted children to adult courts for trial. The second factor that contributes to the difference in sentencing of convicted children is that procedures differ significantly from state to state in relation to various aspects like prior record, age, and the severity of the crime. Despite the differences in these procedures, the main objective or philosophy associated with the process is to protect society through tightening laws governing juveniles in order to them to have lesser opportunities for harming the society.
However, as the laws are increasingly toughened in light of changes in the society and the need…
References:
Axtman, K. (2001, February 8). Kid on Trial: 'Justice by Geography.' Retrieved November
3, 2012, from http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0208/p1s3.html
"Sentencing Disparity and Discrimination." (n.d.). Chapter Four. Retrieved November 3, 2012,
from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/27008_4.pdf
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