Because juveniles can now be registered as sex offenders, we conducted a pilot study to investigate awareness of these policies and sexual behavior histories in a convenience sample of 53 young adults (ages 18 to 23, 79% women). These preliminary data revealed that 42% percent of participants were unaware that youth under the age of 18 can be…

Purpose: This paper highlights the forensic implications of language impairment in 2 key (and overlapping) groups of young people: identified victims of maltreatment (abuse and/or neglect) and young offenders. Method: Two lines of research pertaining to oral language competence and young people's interface with the law are considered: 1 regarding…

Elizabeth Scott and Laurence Steinberg explore the dramatic changes in the law's conception of young offenders between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. At the dawn of the juvenile court era, they note, most youths were tried and punished as if they were adults. Early juvenile court reformers argued strongly…

Presents descriptive data on a 5-year cohort of 20 adolescent murderers from England and Wales, and provides an outline of their pathway through the criminal justice system together with a framework for their ongoing individual therapy. Suggests refinement of categories of juvenile homicide and increased information sharing among professionals.…

The authors use a developmental perspective to examine questions about the criminal culpability of juveniles and the juvenile death penalty. Under principles of criminal law, culpability is mitigated when the actor's decision-making capacity is diminished, when the criminal act was coerced, or when the act was out of character. The authors argue…

This report of the Congressional Committee on the Judiciary, comments favorably on the bill H.R. 3351, an amendment to the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. H.R. 3351 is intended to assist the States and local governments in developing alternatives to traditional modes of probation and incarceration for certain young offenders.…

This study used archival data to examine adult charges and court outcomes for 82 individuals who had been treated in public mental health programs as adolescents. Subjects' clinical records from their adolescent day treatment (18 percent), residential (23 percent) or hospital program (58 percent) were reviewed for sociodemographics, clinical…