Juvenile Justice: Age and Judicial Culpability Essay -- Criminal Justi

This paper will first define culpability, explore its several(a) aims and examine how it is use during sentencing. Next, this paper will examine literature that supports the belief that advance is non the key factor in determining culpability and should not be used to determine guilt or innocence during trial. Finally, this paper will suggest that trying juveniles as adults and remanding them into adult facilities is ineffective at change magnitude juvenile crime rates. These issues will be reviewed to determine if corporeal (chronological) age is a justifiable cause to lessen culpability or an excuse used to mask the ineffective research efforts of lawmakers.Culpability has long been defined as a legal term that is used by judicial officials to describe the level of responsibility each person has for a crime Giedd et al (1999). Prosecutors use courtroom jargon such as culpability based on physical age as a legal excuse to persuade courtroom officials to reduce sentences for ju venile offenders. Studies taken from Corriero (2007) revealed that a normal child can line right from wrong as early as the age of 2 physical socio-economic classs but it may take up to 1 supererogatory year for an abnormal child to develop that selfsame(prenominal) unit of cognitive measure. This statement suggests that although it may take longer for anabnormal child to reach the same level of understanding mentally, one calendar year does not have to open the door for lessened criminal liability. This raises the chronological age of normal children and lessens the age of abnormal children in many cases. For example, a 14 year old (chronological age) child can have the mental age of a 6 year old or vice versa. Juvenile accountability varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction throughout the ... ...dies An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition Vol. 80, zero(prenominal) 1 (Oct., 1995), pp. 41-49 Smit, D. (2005) The Abolition of Capital Punishment for Pe rsons Under the Age of Eighteen Years in the United States of America. What Next? Oxford Journals Law Human Rights Law limited review Volume 5, Issue 2 Pp. 393-401Staniels, J. (1995) Grading Culpability at Sentencing The Example of Sentencing Entrapment Federal Sentencing Reporter Vol. 7, No. 4, Criminal Law Defenses at Sentencing pp. 178-180 Steinberg, L & Scott, E.(2003) less(prenominal) Guilty by Reason of Adolescence Developmental Immaturity, Diminished Responsibility, and the Juvenile Death Penalty. American Psychologist, Vol 58(12), 1009-1018Winter, H ( 2006)The Economics of Crime An Introduction to Rational Crime psychoanalysis5th and 14th Amendment Retrieved from www.findlaw.com October 29, 2011