Adult Time for Adult Crime Conclusion: A Lawful and Appropriate Punishment

Cully Stimson / November 06, 2009

The United States has a juvenile crime problem that far exceeds the juvenile crime problems of other Western countries. Over the years, state legislatures have responded to this increase in the volume and severity of juvenile crime by providing for sentences that effectively punish offenders, incapacitate them, and deter serious offenses. They have determined by an overwhelming majority that fulfilling their duty to protect their citizens requires making available life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders.

The sentence stands up to constitutional scrutiny. All state supreme courts and federal courts that have considered the question have concluded that life without parole for juvenile offenders does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court’s proportionality standard—the highest level of scrutiny it has applied to non-capital punishment—does not prohibit states from punishing murder and other serious offenses with lengthy prison terms; the Court has said that judges should second-guess state legislatures’ determinations of criminal punishment only in the rarest cases where the punishment is wholly disproportionate to the harm of the offense. (more…)