According to Human Rights Watch, the prohibition on the death penalty for crimes committed by juvenile offenders - persons under age eighteen at the time of the offence - is well established in international treaty and customary law. The overwhelming majority of states comply with this standard: only five states are known to have executed juvenile offenders since 2005. In recent years the United States (US), Pakistan, and China have taken steps toward abolishing the juvenile death penalty, with varying levels of success. The U.S took a bold step in 2005 when the U.S Supreme Court abolished juvenile death penalty (Laurence, et al, 583). The juvenile justice system is based on the belief that juveniles are developmentally different from adults.
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This lack of interest is unfortunate. The relationship between victim gender and death penalty outcomes not only provides insight into the decision-making process of criminal justice actors and into the relevance of particular crime distinctiveness connected with the imposition of death sentences, but also it aggravates important questions about how public delamination and disparity - namely, the relative structural positions of victims (and offenders) - influence public perceptions of crime seriousness and official punishment responses (Williams, et al, …show more content…
Furthermore, because men commit most death-eligible homicides, the ability to assess the relationship statistically between defendant gender and sentencing outcomes in capital cases is limited. Despite this limitation, researchers find that the gender of the victim (like the race of the victim) seems to play a role in capital cases. Several studies find that cases with female victims are more likely to receive a death sentence than cases with male victims (Baumer, Messner, and Felson, (283); Gross and Mauro; Radelet and Pierce (7); Williams and Holcomb (209). Sadly, researchers have paid less attention to explaining such results. Defendants who murder women may be perceived as more dangerous and morally culpable than defendants who kill men and, hence, more justifiable of retribution (Baumer, Messner, and Felson, 285). Defendants may also be viewed as creating additional hardships for families, the community, and the state. For example, killing a female victim might disrupt childcare or social support networks more than killing a male victim
This lack of interest is unfortunate. The relationship between victim gender and death penalty outcomes not only provides insight into the decision-making process of criminal justice actors and into the relevance of particular crime distinctiveness connected with the imposition of death sentences, but also it aggravates important questions about how public delamination and disparity - namely, the relative structural positions of victims (and offenders) - influence public perceptions of crime seriousness and official punishment responses (Williams, et al, …show more content…
Furthermore, because men commit most death-eligible homicides, the ability to assess the relationship statistically between defendant gender and sentencing outcomes in capital cases is limited. Despite this limitation, researchers find that the gender of the victim (like the race of the victim) seems to play a role in capital cases. Several studies find that cases with female victims are more likely to receive a death sentence than cases with male victims (Baumer, Messner, and Felson, (283); Gross and Mauro; Radelet and Pierce (7); Williams and Holcomb (209). Sadly, researchers have paid less attention to explaining such results. Defendants who murder women may be perceived as more dangerous and morally culpable than defendants who kill men and, hence, more justifiable of retribution (Baumer, Messner, and Felson, 285). Defendants may also be viewed as creating additional hardships for families, the community, and the state. For example, killing a female victim might disrupt childcare or social support networks more than killing a male victim