During the 1980s and 1990s, state lawmakers shifted juvenile justice policies from a nominally offender-oriented rehabilitative approach toward a more punitive and criminalized one. Pretrial detention and delinquency dispositions had disproportionate adverse effects on minority youths. Despite juvenile courts’ convergence with criminal courts, states provided fewer and less adequate procedural safeguards to delinquents than to adults. Developmental psychologists and policy analysts contend that adolescents’ compromised ability to exercise rights requires greater procedural safeguards. States’ transfer laws sent more and younger youths to criminal courts for prosecution as adults, emphasized offense seriousness over offender characteristics, and shifted discretion from judges conducting waiver hearings to prosecutors making charging decisions. Judges in criminal courts sentence youths similarly to adult offenders. The Supreme Court, relying on developmental psychology and neuroscience research, in Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, and Miller v. Alabama, emphasized adolescents’ diminished responsibility and limited the harshest sentences. However, the court provided states limited guidance on how to implement its decisions. Judicial and legislative responses inadequately acknowledge that “children are different.”

中文翻译：

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在少年法庭和刑事法庭惩罚孩子

在1980年代和1990年代，国家立法者将少年司法政策从名义上面向罪犯的改造方法转变为更具惩罚性和刑事定罪的方法。审前拘留和犯罪倾向对少数民族青年的不利影响不成比例。尽管少年法院与刑事法院趋于一致，但各州对犯罪者提供的程序保障却少于成年人。发展心理学家和政策分析家认为，青少年行使权利的能力受损，需要采取更大的程序保障措施。州的转移法律将成年后更多和年轻的年轻人作为成年人送交刑事法院起诉，强调犯罪行为的严重性超过罪犯的特征，并将酌处权从进行豁免听证的法官转变为作出指控决定的检察官。刑事法院的法官对少年的判刑与成年罪犯的判刑相似。最高法院在Roper诉Simmons案，Graham诉Florida案和Miller诉阿拉巴马州案中依靠发展心理学和神经科学研究，强调了青少年的责任减退，并限制了最严厉的判决。但是，法院提供了各州关于如何执行其裁决的有限指导。司法和立法回应不足以承认“孩子是不同的”。法院向各州提供了有关如何执行其裁决的有限指导。司法和立法回应不足以承认“孩子是不同的”。法院向各州提供了有关如何执行其裁决的有限指导。司法和立法回应不足以承认“孩子是不同的”。