Life after life: Recidivism among individuals formerly sentenced to mandatory juvenile life without parole.
adolescence
culpability
development
juveniles
legal policy
Journal
Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence
ISSN: 1532-7795
Titre abrégé: J Res Adolesc
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 9109126
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
06 Jun 2024
06 Jun 2024
Historique:
received:
01
11
2023
accepted:
21
05
2024
medline:
7
6
2024
pubmed:
7
6
2024
entrez:
7
6
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
In Miller v. Alabama (2012), the Supreme Court abolished mandatory juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences and subsequently decided that the ruling applied retroactively (Montgomery v. Louisiana, 2016), effectively rendering thousands of inmates eligible for resentencing and potential release from prison. In its decisions, the Court cited developmental science, noting that youth, by virtue of their transient immaturity, are less culpable and more amenable to rehabilitation relative to their adult counterparts. Specifically, the Court notes adolescents' propensity for impulsive action, sensitivity to social influence, and difficulty understanding long-term consequences. Even so, these rulings raised concerns regarding the consequences of releasing prisoners who had committed heinous crimes as juveniles. Several years after the Court's decision, preliminary data are now available to shed light on rates of recidivism among those released. The current paper comprises three goals. First, we discuss the science of adolescent development and how it intersects with legal practice, contextualizing the Court's decision. Second, we present recidivism data from a sample of individuals formerly sentenced to JLWOP in Pennsylvania who were resentenced and released under Miller and Montgomery (N = 287). Results indicate that 15 individuals received new criminal charges up to 7 years postrelease (5.2%), the majority of which were nonviolent offenses. This low rate of recidivism is consistent with the developmental science documenting compromised decision-making during the adolescent years, followed by desistance from criminal behavior in adulthood. Lastly, we discuss the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers and legal practitioners, as well as critical future avenues of research in this area.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Informations de copyright
© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Research on Adolescence published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research on Adolescence.
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