 Carla Hughes |
SCHOOL: Alcorn State University
MAJOR: Criminal Justice MENTOR: Dr. John Winkle EXPECTED GRADUATION DATE: 2005 ORGANIZATIONS & HONORS:
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ABSTRACT
Juveniles and the Death Penalty
| Although the use of the death penalty for crimes committed
under the
age of 18 is prohibited under the international human rights standards,
some countries such as the United States permit or practice the
execution
of juvenile offenders. The intense debate over the juvenile death
penalty raises fundamental questions about its goals and its
processes.
Half the states that use the death penalty as a means of punishment
allow
juveniles who commit capital crimes at age 16 and 17 to be tried and
sentenced
as adults. Some question whether the juvenile justice system was
established to carry out this type of principle.
The purpose of this paper is to conduct research that enhances the reader knowledge of the states that actually use the death penalty to prosecute juveniles, effects on the family emotionally and physically, and juveniles executed since 1976. This paper will also show statistics of those for or against the juvenile death penalty, and moral standards that Christian believers have for and against the use of capital punishment. |