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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Life Without Parole: The Influence Of Age And Race On The Sentencing Of Juvenile Offenders, Maria Annabel Mireles
Life Without Parole: The Influence Of Age And Race On The Sentencing Of Juvenile Offenders, Maria Annabel Mireles
Psychology Theses
In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to sentence adolescents charged with non-homicide crimes to life without parole (Graham v. Florida, 2012). Currently, research regarding life without parole is assessed in conjunction with the death penalty, in which life without parole is proposed as a lesser alternative to the death penalty. The current study investigated whether age and race are predictive factors in sentencing juvenile offenders. A sample consisting of 225 undergraduate students were presented with one of six case scenarios adapted from Wilkins v. Missouri (1985) in which the defendant’s age (13, 15, 17) and race …