Law Commons^™

Awareness Of Sex Offender Registration Policies And Self-Reported Sexual Offending In A Community Sample Of Adolescents, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Hayley M. D. Cleary

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Sex offender registration laws are widely implemented, increasingly restrictive, and intended to serve both specific and general deterrent functions. Most states have some form of policy mechanism to place adolescents on sex offender registries, yet it remains unclear whether adolescents possess the requisite policy awareness to be deterred from sexual offending. This study examined awareness of sex offender registration as a potential sanction and its cross-sectional association with engagement in several registrable sexual behaviors (sexting, indecent exposure, sexual solicitation, and forcible touching) in a community sample of 144 adolescents. Results revealed that many adolescents were unaware that these behaviors could …

Champions For Justice & Public Interest Auction 2019, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Public Interest Auction

No abstract provided.

Decriminalizing Childhood, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

Even though the number of juveniles arrested, tried and detained has recently declined, there are still a large number of delinquency cases, children under supervision by state officials, and children living in state facilities for youth and adults. Additionally, any positive developments in juvenile justice have not been evenly experienced by all youth. Juveniles living in urban areas are more likely to have their cases formally processed in the juvenile justice system rather than informally resolved. Further, the reach of the justice system has a particularly disparate effect on minority youth who tend to live in heavily-policed urban areas.

The …

Youth Matters: Miller V. Alabama And The Future Of Juvenile Sentencing, John F. Stinneford

UF Law Faculty Publications

In the Supreme Court's latest Eighth Amendment decision, Miller v. Alabama, the Court held that statutes authorizing mandatory sentences of life in prison with no possibility of parole are unconstitutional as applied to offenders who were under eighteen when they committed their crimes. This short essay examines several themes presented in Miller, including the constitutional significance of youth and science, the legitimacy of mandatory life sentences and juvenile transfer statutes, and the conflict between “evolving standards of decency” and the Supreme Court’s “independent judgment.”

This essay also introduces important articles by Richard Frase, Carol Steiker and Jordan Steiker, …

Death Is Not So Different After All: Graham V. Florida And The Court's "Kids Are Different" Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence, Mary E. Berkheiser

Scholarly Works

In Graham v. Florida, the United States Supreme Court declared that life sentences without the possibility of parole for non-homicides are off limits for all juveniles. Following its lead in Roper v. Simmons, the landmark decision in which the Court abolished the juvenile death penalty, the Court expanded on its Eighth Amendment juvenile jurisprudence by ruling that locking up juveniles for life based on crimes other than homicides is cruel and unusual and, therefore, prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. With that ruling, the Court erected a categorical bar to incarcerating forever those not yet adults at the time …

Sexting Or Self-Produced Child Pornography – The Dialogue Continues – Structured Prosecutorial Discretion Within A Multidisciplinary Response, Mary Graw Leary

Scholarly Articles

One need only read the newspaper to see a rising dangerous phenomenon among juveniles: the creation and subsequent sharing via the Internet of sexually explicit photographs. This self exploitation is not only a tragic social problem, but a growing legal one as well. Judges, attorneys, and legislators, are forced to address this activity because, in addition to being self destructive, it is also a violation of state and federal child pornography laws. Juvenile self exploitation illustrates a clash of two lines of jurisprudence and public policy: the aggressive opposition to child pornography and the more lenient rehabilitative treatment of juvenile …

Defending Juveniles Facing Life Without Parole In Michigan, Kimberly A. Thomas

Articles

In Graham v. Florida, the United State Supreme Court held that life without parole could not be imposed on a juvenile offender for a non-homicide crime. This article discusses the challenges, under the Eighth Amendment and the Michigan Constitution, to the sentence of life without parole imposed on someone 17 years old or less.

Collateral Damage? Juvenile Snitches In America’S 'Wars' On Drugs, Crime And Gangs, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

The government’s use of children as informants in America’s 'wars' on drugs, crime, and gangs is little recognized and rarely discussed by scholars, policymakers, and the public. As with many governmental practices, only notorious instances make headlines, such as when a child is killed in retaliation for informing. Because public attention rarely is focused on the practice, it has not generated consistent documentation of, regulation of, or accountability for such use of child informants. As a starting point for discussion, this article illuminates the experiences of child informants, describing a facet of the snitching institution that generally operates under the …

Adult Punishment For Juvenile Offenders: Does It Reduce Crime?, Richard E. Redding

Working Paper Series

This chapter discusses the research on the general and specific deterrent effects of transferring juveniles for trial in adult criminal court, identifies gaps in our knowledge base that require further research, discusses the circumstances under which effective deterrence may be achieved, and examines whether there are effective alternatives for achieving deterrence other than adult sanctions for serious juvenile offenders. As a backdrop to this analysis, the chapter first examines the role of public opinion in shaping the get tough policies, and how policy makers have misunderstood and perceived support for these policies.

Multicultural Perspectives On Delinquency Etiology And Intervention, Richard E. Redding, Bruce Arrigo

Working Paper Series

In this chapter, we consider the possible reasons for the overrepresentation of African-American youth in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. We review research on discrimination in the justice system and possible differences between African American and White youth in the key risk factors for delinquency that exist at the individual, family, and peer-group and neighborhood levels. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for treatments and interventions aimed at preventing and reducing offending and justice system involvement among African-American youth.

The New "Fetal Protection": The Wrong Answer To The Crisis Of Inadequate Health Care For Women And Children, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article will expand upon the feminist critique by focusing on children's health as well as the health and liberty interests of their mothers. In the first part of this article, I examine the legal and cultural underpinnings of “fetal protection” and explore its current manifestations. In the second part, I place “fetal protection” in a broader context, documenting the ways in which American law currently promotes fetal life, while simultaneously neglecting the lives and health of born children. The third part of the article offers concrete recommendations about how government, both state and federal, can actually achieve the goal …

The Scientific Shortcomings Of Roper V. Simmons, Deborah W. Denno

Faculty Scholarship

This Article contends that some of the case law and social science research that form the basis for the United States Supreme Court's decision in Roper v. Simmons are insufficient and outdated. The Court also relies heavily upon briefs submitted by the respondent and his amici, in lieu of providing more pertinent citations and analysis that could have enhanced and modernized the Court's arguments. The sparse and sometimes archaic sources for Roper potentially limit the opinion's precedential value. For example, the Court cites Erik Erikson's 1968 book, Identity: Youth and Crisis, to support the view that, relative to adults, juveniles …

Playing Hide And Seek: How To Protect Virtual Pornographers And Actual Children On The Internet, Audrey Rogers

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article considers the Supreme Court's suggestion and recommends a mechanism to regulate the virtual pornography market in a manner that balances the rights of virtual pornographers with the prosecution of actual child pornographers. Part II traces the events leading up to the Free Speech decision, commencing with the enactment of the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (CPPA). Part III discusses the Free Speech opinion and the post-Free Speech cases. Part IV examines the PROTECT Act--the legislative response to the Supreme Court's decision. Part V concludes that regulation of the virtual pornography industry is the most effective method of …

"Which One Of You Did It? Criminal Liability For "Causing Or Allowing" The Death Of A Child, Lissa Griffin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article analyzes how current U.S. criminal law addresses the problem of securing a homicide conviction where multiple defendants are accused in a child's non-accidental death. Part III sets forth the English response: a statute that includes (1) a new substantive crime; (2) a permissible negative inference against a defendant who fails to account for the non-accidental death of a child for whom he or she is responsible; and (3) delay of a motion to dismiss for failure to establish a prima facie case until after the defense has been presented or the jury has been allowed to draw the …

New Technology, Old Defenses: Internet Sting Operations And Attempt Liability, Audrey Rogers

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article addresses the general principles of attempt liability, including a description of the doctrines of factual and legal impossibility and the rationale behind the historical treatment of these defenses. Part III describes recent Internet attempt cases, and Part IV analyzes issues raised by such cases. This article suggests that the new Internet cases provide further rationale for rejecting a distinction between factual and legal impossibility that would allow the latter to be a defense. This article also discusses issues surrounding the appropriate mens rea for attempt, and its applicability to Internet cases, where the defendants claim ignorance or indifference …

Proportionality And Punishment: Imposing Life Without Parole On Juveniles, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

The Eighth Amendment provides that “no cruel and unusual punishment shall be inflicted.” The Supreme Court has interpreted to this to mean a punishment cannot be “grossly disproportionate” to the crime. In this article, the author addresses whether an offender's age should play a role in assessing whether a sentence is “grossly disproportionate.” Specifically, the author addresses the increasingly common practice of imposing life without parole on offenders who are under sixteen years of age at the time they committed their offense, and whether such offenders’ youthful status should play a role in proportionality analysis. The article first provides an …

On The Perils Of Line-Drawing: Juveniles And The Death Penalty, Joseph L. Hoffmann

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Juvenile Offender Act: Effectiveness And Impact On The New York Juvenile Justice System, Merril Sobie

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Juvenile Offender Act of 1978 incorporates the most radical and perhaps the most controversial amendments to New York's juvenile delinquency statutes in several decades. For the first time since 1909, children accused of committing serious offenses are subject to prosecution in the criminal courts. The gradual decriminalization of delinquency, which began a century and a half ago, has been reversed. This report analyzes and evaluates the Act and its implementation. The first two sections summarize the historical development of juvenile delinquency legislation and compare present New York provisions to those in other states. Sections III and IV will evaluate …