About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

23 Psychol. Pub. Pol'y & L. 410 (2017)
Adolescent Brain Science and Juvenile Justice Policymaking

handle is hein.journals/psypbclw23 and id is 420 raw text is: t'~vchology, PubiK Pohc. and La, 20)17. Vol. 21. M, 4. 410-420) 1, 7 An-rica t',,,hlog,-a X-o,-an i l076-X97 l/l71Sl0)2) lit1pI/d,.dio,e,/( I))7/Ia.00005128 Adolescent Brain Science and Juvenile Justice Policymaking Laurence Steinberg Temple University The American legal system's thinking about the criminal culpability of juveniles has been radically transformed over the past 12 years. largely as a result of the introduction of developmental science into the United States Supreme Court's deliberations about the appropriate sentencing of adolescents who have been convicted of the most serious crimes. The author examines the role that developmental science, and, especially, developmental neuroscience, has played in this policy transformation. After a brief overview of the Court's rulings in 4 landmark cases decided between 2005 and 2016, he summarizes the relevant psychological and neurobiological evidence that likely guided the Court's rulings. The author concludes with suggestions for future research and policy analysis. including (a) the study of develop- mental differences between adolescents and adults that have implications for their differential treatment under criminal law, with a particular focus on the neural underpinnings of these differences: (b) the study of the impact of variations in juvenile justice policy and practice on outcomes other than recidivism; and (c) the study of the financial costs and benefits of juvenile justice policy alternatives. Keywords: juvenile justice, adolescent brain development, Supreme Court This article describes what I believe has been a genuine success story, one of those rare cases in which scientific research has been used to create a foundation on which a radical transformation in social policies affecting children and youth has been set in motion. When this work began, in the late 1990s, juvenile offenders were being demonized as super-predators. and our nation's response to juvenile crime was growing increasingly harsh. That trend has clearly reversed, however, and several landmark cases decided by the United States Supreme Court in the past 12 years have ensured that numerous aspects of this shift will be more than fleeting changes of opinion. The transformation is ongoing, to be sure, and much work remains to be done, but remarkable progress has been made in reforming juvenile justice policy and practice over the past two decades. Historical Background Few issues challenge a society's ideas about both the nature of human development and the nature of justice as much as serious Editor's Note. Elizabeth Cauffman, PhD, served as the action editor for this submission.-ML This article was published Online First April 6, 2017. I am grateful to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for its generous support of this program of work. Portions of this article draw on previously published material by the author on the history of juvenile justice policymaking that appeared in Improving the Odds for Atnerica's Children: Future Directions for Policy and Practice (Cambridge. MA: Harvard University Press, 2014) and The influence of neuroscience on U.S. Supreme Court decisions involving adolescents' criminal culpability (Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2013). Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Laurence Steinberg, Department of Psychology. Temple University, Weiss Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19122-6085. E-mail: laurence.steinberg@temple.edu juvenile crime. Because we neither expect children to be criminals nor expect crimes to be committed by children, the unexpected intersection between childhood and criminality creates a dilemma that most people find difficult to resolve. Indeed, the only ways out of this problem are either to redefine the offense as something less serious than a crime or to redefine the offender as someone who is not really a child (Steinberg. 2009). For most of the 20th century, American society has most often chosen the first approach-redefining the offense-treating most juvenile infractions as matters to be adjudicated as delinquent acts within a separate juvenile justice system designed to recognize the special needs and immature status of young people and to therefore emphasize rehabilitation over punishment. States believed that the juvenile justice system was a vehicle to protect the public by providing a system that responds to children who are maturing into adulthood. They recognized that conduct alone-that is, the al- leged criminal act-should not be dispositive in deciding when to invoke the heavy hand of the adult criminal justice system. By providing for accountability, treatment, and supervision in the juvenile justice system-and in the community whenever possi- ble-the juvenile justice system promoted short-term and long- term public safety. In the latter decades of the 20th century, as violent youth crime rates rose, attacks on the juvenile court intensified (Scott & Stein- berg, 2008). Critics railed at the depiction of young criminals as children, a characterization that was discordant with media images of teenage street gangs spreading fear in urban neighborhoods. By the 1990s young offenders became - super-predators in the pop- ular imagination, teenage criminals without moral inhibitions who were eager to kill and maim those who came in their paths. Under the mantra of adult time for adult crime, young offenders be- came subject to increasingly harsh punishments, many of them administered by adult criminal courts and sometimes carried out within correctional facilities that had been previously reserved for individuals 18 and older. 410

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most