Making the Sentencing Case: Psychological and Neuroscientific Evidence for Expanding the Age of Youthful Offenders

IF 6.3 1区社会学 Q1 CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY

Annual Review of Criminology Pub Date : 2021-08-23 DOI:10.1146/annurev-criminol-030920-113250

B. J. Casey, Cortney Simmons, L. Somerville, A. Baskin-Sommers

{"title":"Making the Sentencing Case: Psychological and Neuroscientific Evidence for Expanding the Age of Youthful Offenders","authors":"B. J. Casey, Cortney Simmons, L. Somerville, A. Baskin-Sommers","doi":"10.1146/annurev-criminol-030920-113250","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Youthful offenders convicted of serious crimes continue to be sentenced to death and life without parole in the United States based on legal arguments that cast them as incorrigible and permanent dangers to society. Yet psychological and neuroscientific evidence contradicts these arguments and unequivocally demonstrates significant changes in brain, behavior, and personality throughout the life course, especially during adolescence as it extends into the early twenties. This article ( a) clarifies the current state of the science on typical behavioral and brain development showing robust changes into the twenties; ( b) demonstrates that behavior, personality, and psychopathic traits are dynamic and change over time; and ( c) underscores that reliance on prior criminal behavior only to predict later recidivism is tenuous at best. Together, these scientific insights make a case for extending juvenile protections to youthful offenders sentenced for crimes committed in their teens and early twenties. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 5 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.","PeriodicalId":51759,"journal":{"name":"Annual Review of Criminology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.3000,"publicationDate":"2021-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annual Review of Criminology","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-030920-113250","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 5

Abstract

Youthful offenders convicted of serious crimes continue to be sentenced to death and life without parole in the United States based on legal arguments that cast them as incorrigible and permanent dangers to society. Yet psychological and neuroscientific evidence contradicts these arguments and unequivocally demonstrates significant changes in brain, behavior, and personality throughout the life course, especially during adolescence as it extends into the early twenties. This article ( a) clarifies the current state of the science on typical behavioral and brain development showing robust changes into the twenties; ( b) demonstrates that behavior, personality, and psychopathic traits are dynamic and change over time; and ( c) underscores that reliance on prior criminal behavior only to predict later recidivism is tenuous at best. Together, these scientific insights make a case for extending juvenile protections to youthful offenders sentenced for crimes committed in their teens and early twenties. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 5 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

查看原文本刊更多论文

量刑案例：扩大青少年罪犯年龄的心理学和神经科学证据

在美国，被判犯有严重罪行的年轻罪犯继续被判处死刑和终身监禁，不得假释，其法律论据将他们视为不可救药的、对社会的永久性危险。然而，心理学和神经科学的证据与这些论点相矛盾，并明确地表明，在整个生命过程中，大脑、行为和个性都发生了重大变化，尤其是在青春期，直到20岁出头。这篇文章（a）阐明了典型行为和大脑发育的科学现状，显示出20年代的强劲变化；（b）证明行为、个性和精神病特征是动态的，并随着时间的推移而变化；以及（c）强调，仅仅依靠先前的犯罪行为来预测以后的累犯充其量是脆弱的。总之，这些科学见解为将青少年保护扩大到因青少年和二十出头犯罪而被判刑的青少年罪犯提供了理由。《犯罪学年度评论》第5卷预计最终在线出版日期为2022年1月。请参阅http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates用于修订估算。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Annual Review of Criminology CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY-

CiteScore

11.30

自引率

2.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Annual Review of Criminology provides comprehensive reviews of significant developments in the multidisciplinary field of criminology, defined as the study of both the nature of criminal behavior and societal reactions to crime.