FROM “TRANSIENT IMMATURITY” TO A PERMANENT TRANSFORMATION: Jack’s story

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

The Routledge International Handbook of Juvenile Homicide

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Abstract

Through the lens of the case of an adolescent boy who committed a murder and served nearly three decades in adult prison before he was released on parole, this chapter elucidates key concepts in the US Supreme Court’s reasoning in several recent important cases. It documents this youth’s recovery from early adverse childhood experiences and negative peer effects and his transformation from “transient immaturity” to adult stability. The chapter leverages the accumulating research advances about adolescent development and the process of violence desistance in adulthood to provide context and meaning to this adolescent’s change. The chapter discusses factors of psychosocial maturity or sophistication, violence risk and its diminution through maturation, rehabilitation and personality change, and the limitations in science and clinical practice to sort out the “transient immature” from the permanently “incorrigible”.

First Page

532

Last Page

545

DOI

10.4324/9781003242833-42

ISBN

9781000997491,9781032119243

Link to Full Text

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