Capital Punishment In The Juvenile Justice System

When the legal system of the English common law emerged, it declared that the King had the ultimate authority over children; thus, children were assets. Throughout centuries, children were considered “little adults,” and “property,” consequently, exploitation of children as laborers was a customary occurrence. Child labor, unfortunately, was a necessity for families who suffered from severe poverty (Davin, 2008).
During colonial times, children were perceived as “property of the parents,” (Hinton, Sims, Adams, & West, 2007, p. 471) hence, parents were allowed to “classify their child as stubborn and seek state sanction, including capital punishment” (Barrow, Rufo, & Arambula, 2013, p. 51). The critical and significant social issue that arose …show more content…
Although over the recent years theories and laws have continued to evolve, there is one aspect that remains the same: some, not all, children, juveniles, and adult offenders are given the opportunity to bypass certain sanctions of their punishment. Thus, the question remains, why must juveniles be sentenced to life without parole, instead of having the opportunity to serve their sentence through a community corrections program, such as probation or parole? This information is highly important to determine because it provides society with a better understanding of the sanctions in the Juvenile Justice …show more content…
Scholars determined that throughout this century and until 1775, the “indentured servant[s] had to comply with certain conditions to remain in supervised freedom” (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 259). In 1837, “the first legislation authorizing parole in the United States was enacted in Massachusetts” (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 261). According to Schmalleger & Smykla, nearly four decades later, a correctional institution in New York implemented an “extensive parole program” (p. 261). The 20th century marked the era where society realized that although parole was a great option “prisons and the parole system failed to rehabilitate offenders” thus, further actions needed to be taken (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 261). Parole soon was used as a way to keep jail and prison populations lower by “keeping the number of people being released on parole about equal to the number of new prisoner admissions” (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 262). In the late 20th century, however, it was once again noted that parole was not the best form of rehabilitating