Recently in Juvenile Court Category

CASA Volunteers: Become a Hero for a Child in Need

            After interviewing my mother for the "Interview a Professional" project I became much more familiar with the CASA program and decided to share it with the group as it may be something many might be interested in.

http://www.casaforchildren.org/site/c.mtJSJ7MPIsE/b.5301309/k.9D58/Volunteering.htm

            Above is the main website for the organization.  I'll include the basics here, along with why I feel it is a great example of the mix of psychology and law that lies at the heart of this course.

            CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate, and is a volunteer based program with the following basic mission:

"CASA is the only volunteer organization that empowers everyday citizens as officers of the court. In an overburdened social welfare system, abused and neglected children often slip through the cracks among hundreds of current cases. CASA volunteers change that. Appointed by judges, CASA volunteers typically handle just one case at a time--and commit to staying on that case until the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. While others may come and go, CASA volunteers provide that one constant that children need in order to thrive."

I was sitting in my homicide class and someone gave a presentation on the Jonesboro Massacre. I wanted to learn more about what happened. I don't know who knows about this school shooting, but two young boys, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11 went to their school on March 24, 1998, with about 9 guns and waiting in the woods until Golden had to go in and pulled the fire alarm to make the students come out. As the students exited the school they shot at them. They managed to kill 5, 4 students and one teacher, and wound 10.

 

The murders were said to motived by the both of the girlfriends breaking up with them. They had told students about their plan but no one took them seriously about the threat. This is an article for the day after the shootings occurred. Due to Arkansas' law the boys only had to serve time in a juvenile detention center until they were 21 years old. My question is to why two young boys would do this at such a young age. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/jonesboro-massacre-slaughtered-by-boy-who-had-a-lot-of-killing-to-do-1152422.html

Here is another article that was written in 2008 that has more information on what happened and what happened after they were released.

http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4460

 

·         In 2008, 7,703 children under age 18 were held in American adult local jails.

·         3,650 children under the age 18 were held in American adult state prisons.

·         22 states allow children as young as 7 to be tried as adults.

·         Every year, nearly 80 children age 13 and younger are judicially transferred to adult court.

These are absolutely shocking statistics. The book, "From Time Out to Hard Time: Young Children in the Adult Criminal Justice System," tells of how the nation treats pre-adolescent children (age 12 and under) who commit serious crimes.

This report recommends a few things to keep children out of the harsh conditions in prisons. The first is that we should work to keep our children in the juvenile justice system. The second is that parole opportunities should be given to young children regardless of the length of the sentence. The article says that in Florida and Pennsylvania, children as young as 7 can serve life in prison without parole.

The final recommendation is that children in the adult system should not be housed with adult criminals, but instead in a juvenile facility. This I would absolutely agree with. Most seven year olds are raised by their parents in a cozy and safe environment. I can only imagine the psychological impact that growing up in a prison amongst adult criminals would have on a seven year old.

Here is a news article about a 12 year old boy being charged as an adult for the murder of his father's pregnant girlfriend:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/21/jordan-brown-killed-fathe_n_168862.html

My view on this is that I think our system takes it too far when trying children as adults. I understand that they do some very adult things, but I can't help but feel that we aren't realizing they are children. If we simply look at how they are developed emotionally we can see that they by no means act in adult ways. It scares me to think of my little brothers, who are around the age of 12, going to prison. Not only that, but spending their life there around the other people in prison. I believe our law system needs to get a better grip on children and charging them as adults. Any one of us can think back to the stupid things we used to do when we were kids. I even read old diaries and think, "Wow, that isn't even like me! I was so stupid!" Children at age 12 are still being molded, and I think by placing them into a prison, with adult criminals, is going to mold them in a very negative way.

A 12 year old student at a New York middle school was arrested for writing "I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 :)" on her desk in class.  Instead of getting a detention or a slap on the wrist, the principle called the police to arrest the 12 year old girl.  The police then proceeded to handcuff the girl in front of all her class mates and took her to the police station. The reason for the for the arrest was b/c the principle was following the zero tolerance rule.

This is an example of how the zero tolerance rule is taking way out of context in many schools these days.  The affects that this can have on this young girl can be huge.  She can be more likely to rebel because this is so ridiculous.  she can develop some psychological disorders from the embarrassment that she faced in front of her friends and community.  I just think that people need to think before they start arresting kids for no reason because it can come with some big consequences.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html

When many people, myself included, think of zero tolerance policies in schools we think weapons. Clearly bringing a weapon to school is not something that should be handled by a stern talking to and a don't do it again. However, a 12-year old girl was arrested, as in handcuffs taken to the station the works, for doodling on her desk. Yeah. The was not any profanity or death threats it wasn't even scratched into the desk just written in green marker. Now I'm not saying that there shouldn't be some punishment for this but this is something that should be handled by say making her clean it up and missing recess not a public arrest in front of her classmates and a three day suspension. In the article I read this in there are several more stories of schools engaging in what I can only call disproportionate retribution the punishments unleashed on these students hardly fits the crime. I have great faith in the people who become police officers but it is things like this that remind me why it is best that there be rules in place to keep the police on there leash. You can read the whole story here

The above photo is from a website I found that uses time-lapse imaging to track brain maturation from ages 5 to 20.  The images are constructed from MRI scans of health children.  Red indicates more gray matter, blue indicates less gray matter.  Gray matter wanes in a back to front wave as the brain matures and neural connections are pruned.  Areas performing more basic functions mature earlier; areas for higher-order functions (emotion, self-control) mature later.  This information is interesting in the examination of juvenile offenders, because it may explain why some juveniles commit crimes.  If emotional and self-control maturation does not occur until later, some juveniles may not have enough self-control to understand the consequences of their crimes nor even the action of committing a crime itself.

I came across this website as I was researching the case of Roper v. Simmons, in which a 17 year old boy is being convicted of first-degree murder and charged with death.  The court reviewed this case, in conjunction with public opinion, and determined that the death penalty violated the 18th amendment because it constituted as "cruel and unusual" punishment for persons under the age of 18. 

I think this information is relevant to the field of developmental psychology and how our brains evolve.  As mentioned above, brain maturation affects emotions and self-control, which could provide valid arguments when assessing the maturation of juvenile criminals and whether to try them in a juvenile court or adult court.  Based on the severity of the crime I think some juveniles should be tried in adult courts; however, if they show a deficit in brain maturation and self-control, I think there is room to argue that child's drive to commit a criminal act.

Below is the link to the website that displays human cortical development up to early adulthood. It also has other interesting images that show the brain maturing as it turns from red to blue (more gray matter to less):

http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/DEVEL/dynamic.html