Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE) publishes an op-ed by CJCJ’s Nisha Ajmani, manager of the Sentencing Services Progam, comparing the United States’ treatment of youth in the justice system to that of other developed nations.
Ajmani focuses the disturbingly low “minimum age of criminal responsibility” (MACR) across the U.S. (the U.N. recommends no younger than age 12 but, in some U.S. states, a 7‑year-old can be prosecuted as an adult in criminal court). She also details “our nation’s zeal to prosecute youth as adults” and the problems with the continued sentencing of juveniles to life without the possibility of parole (JLWOP) in the United States.
“Our thirst for punishing youth is not warranted. Young people comprise a small portion of justice-involved individuals nationwide, and juvenile crime has plummeted over the last 40 years. Moreover, the teen “superpredator” warning of the 1990s, which triggered many of today’s draconian juvenile sentencing laws, has been debunked…
As a so-called leader in human rights, the U.S. must pursue the path that the Supreme Court has set into motion and adhere to global juvenile justice norms by regulating MACR laws and prosecuting and sentencing youth as what they are, youth.”