Juvenile Death Penalty: A Constitutional Dilemma

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United States of America is the only country is the only country in the world were

Juveniles offenders are able to be sentence the death penalty. Juveniles lack maturity and does have a develop sense of responsibility. Being under the age of 18 children are not yet fully developed and able to understand how their actions could cause harsh punishment. Based on the eighth amendment children should protected from death penalty, because it cruel and unusual for adolescents. Therefore, it is constitutional to allow juveniles to be sentence the death penalty because immaturity, a high percentage suffer from abuse, and lack of understanding ones’ actions and punishment. 1899, the progressive movement developed a criminal system for juvenile with …show more content…

In a study on juvenile offenders, researchers discovered that over 83% of juveniles showed signs and symptoms of disorders that may antedated their offenses. (Arline, May 2005). Problems with behavior may have been misunderstood for a lack of discipline instead of a disorder, and many juveniles with disorders came from a home with abuse present. In cases of juvenile offenders the courts are not doing enough evaluations on juvenile families, and eon the few that they do have on file their families are stated to be stable (Arline, May 2005). However, many juvenile offenders went through unthinkable circumstances with the members of the community they live in, parents, and agencies who played a role in their life prior to being in adult criminal system (Darden, 2014). A lot of juveniles who are in the criminal system have common elements in their non-profit profiles like regretful choices, mistrusting adults, robbed childhood, and being disappointed (Darden, 2014). For instance, a juvenile offender name Jennifer Pruitt, went through physical abuse, being exposed to drunken behavior, father sexually abusing her, and domestic abuse (Darden, 2014). She ran away fro home and confided in her neighbor as someone she could trust, but her neighbor convinced her to rob another neighbor (Darden, 2014). During the attempt to the rob the neighbor Pruitt ending up witnessing a murder, and was convicted of a felony murder that landed her more than twenty years in prison (Darden,

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