Juveniles From Under Privileged Backgrounds, Essay Example

Are Juveniles from Under Privileged Backgrounds More Likely to Accept Plea Bargains?

Edelman, M. W. (2007). Let’s put the ‘justice’ back in our juvenile justice system. Baltimore Afro-American (8 Dec 2007), p. A8.

In this article, Marian Wright Edelman compares the 7-year sentence for the 14-year-old African American Shaquanda Cotton who shoved a teacher’s aide in East Texas, and another 14-year-old White girl’s probation sentence for arson, which is a much graver crime. The author underlines the fact that the US juvenile criminal justice system appears very biased in terms of socio-economic status of the delinquents’ families and their race. The author noted that a neatly groomed White adolescent with a mother, a father, and a private attorney supporting him or her in court is much less likely to be sentenced to prison. Deriving her arguments from such evidence, Edelman (2007) speaks about the biases in the criminal justice system, discusses their implications for the adolescents from under-privileged backgrounds, and gives recommendations on the improvement of delivery of justice regarding adolescent delinquency.

Shepherd, R. E. (2008). Plea Bargaining in Juvenile Court. Criminal Justice, 23(3), 61-63.

The author discusses the history of introducing plea bargaining into the juvenile justice system, and notes that it has long been disapproved because it mostly depends not on the gravity of crimes and the juvenile’s criminal record, but on the personal characteristics of youth.  Shepherd (2008) analyzed the way in which the prosecution against a juvenile delinquent should be organized, which evidence should be considered, and which criminal procedures should be kept to.

Viljoen, J. L., Klaver, J., & Roesch, R. (2005). Legal Decisions of Preadolescent and Adolescent Defendants: predictors of Confessions, Pleas, Communication with Attorneys, and Appeals. Law and Human Behavior, 29(3), 253-277.

The authors took an active interest in the connection between age and confessions; by investigating the cases of 152 juvenile defendants, the authors found out that adolescents aged 15 and younger were not likely to confess to the crimes they had committed, and were less likely to appeal the court’s decisions. Older adolescents aged from 15 to 17 were more likely to plead guilty and accept plea bargains if they saw evidence against them was convincing, while the younger convicts confessed with no regard to strength of evidence. Juveniles with less education and legal proficiency were more likely to waive their right to legal counsel, and to dispute the attorneys’ decisions. The present evidence suggests that many young adolescents pleading guilty and receiving strict prison sentences may avoid the sentences in case they receive wise legal counsel and guidance, which is more affordable for adolescents from privileged backgrounds.