Are Children as Legally
Culpable as Adults?
Vanessa
Hernandez, Suffolk University Law School
In
this article, I discuss why adolescent brain science should be considered
before a child can be tried as an adult.
Every
state has a process for handling serious crimes committed by juveniles. These cases are typically indicated or transferred
to an adult court where juveniles are tried as adults and face the possibility
of an adult sentence.
Adolescent
brains are still developing until they reach early adulthood. Research shows
that adolescents have significant neurological deficiencies and differences in
cognitive brain function when compared to adults. Further, recent U.S. Supreme Court cases have
considered this neuroscience in the context of sentencing adolescents. This research should be taken into account
before cases are indicated or transferred and a child faces a potential adult
sentence.
Constitutional Prohibition of Interrogation
of Children
Samantha
Buckingham, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
This
paper will recommend prohibiting entirely the interrogation of children and use
of their statements and confessions as evidence in prosecutions.
Historically,
courts have struggled with reconciling a juvenile’s age and status as a child
with the treatment of young offenders. The law is grappling with how protective
it should be of children and how its treatment of children should differ from
that of adults.
In
the context of interrogations, the constitutional protections afforded children
under the law have not yet caught up with the research and precedent. In J.D.B.
v. North Carolina, the Court held that age is a factor in a Fifth Amendment
Miranda custody analysis.
States
have interpreted J.D.B.’s protections
to apply beyond the specific context of custody. Legislation has also been
evolving across the States affording children greater protections than adults,
even requiring an attorney to be present to counsel children prior to
interrogation.
Statements
made by children are the most unreliable and least useful of all
confessions. Children are inherently
susceptible to pressure and the most prone of any group to false confessions.
Prohibiting
interrogation of children altogether is the most efficient and fair way to
ensure the system does not run afoul of violating the constitutional rights of
children, elicit unreliable evidence, overpower vulnerable children in a manner
that undermines their faith in the police and the legal system, and violate
equal protection for all children who possess a Sixth Amendment right to
effective assistance of counsel.