Transcript Modern Parables and Challenges to the Juvenile Court

MODERN PARABLES AND
CHALLENGES TO THE
JUVENILE COURT
Homicides by Very Young and
Older Juvenile Offenders
• The Jamie Bulger Homicide
• Ryan Harris
• Lionel Tate
– Sentencing options?
• Nathaniel Abraham
– Sentencing options?
• Lee Boyd Malvo
Competency
• The Central Park Jogger Confessions
• The Case of Eva Peña
• Tate v. State (Section 985.225)
Juvenile Sex Offenders
• The Case of J.G.
• Eight Boys and a Girl in Berkeley
The Schoolhouse and
The Jailhouse
• Zero Tolerance in Toledo
• Drug Testing for the Debating Team
– Vernonia School District v. Acton, 115 S.Ct. 2386
Lessons of Paradigm Cases
• Are these cases appropriate for the
juvenile court? By what theory of
adolescence?
• What challenges do they pose to the
juvenile court?
• How would the theory of the juvenile
court be modified to accommodate these
cases, and avoid their treatment as adults?
As infants?
Why a Separate Court?
• Adolescence as a Time Moral, Social
and Physical Development
• Principles of Rehabilitation
• Avoidance of Social Stigma
• Avoidance of Psychological Stigma
Challenges to Modern
Juvenile Court
• Expressing and guarding the principle
that children who break the law are
different from adults (who break the
law? From all adults?) and deserving
of special treatment and a “discount”
on punishment
• Adhering to constitutional principles of
procedural rights
• Discovering the boundaries of penal
proportionality for young offenders
• Guarding the institution of the Juvenile
Court from political attack by those
whose primary concerns are public safety,
social order and retributivism