Concept Paper; Juvenile LWOP and the Death Penalty; Handbook on Sentencing Policies and Practices in the 21st Century (Vol. 4), Cassia Spohn and Pauline K. Brennan

Abstract

The Handbook on Sentencing Policies and Practices in the 21st Century is the fourth in a series of publications by the American Society of Criminology’s Division on Corrections and Sentencing. The book is a compendium of research on related issues with both direct and subtle nexuses. A major contribution of the book is its interdisciplinary approach analyzing sentencing and plea bargaining from both a focal-concerns perspective and legal perspectives — including in capital cases. Although this review provides an overview of the entire informative treatise, it primarily focuses on Chapters 6, 11, and 12 because these three chapters, all of which focus on juveniles either facing life sentences or the death penalty, deeply explore the problems attendant to sentencing disparities. These chapters illustrate how the punishment pendulum swung from rehabilitation to retribution and back, as illustrated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s jurisprudence concerning juvenile offenders. Another insight is the parallel themes of the “liberation hypothesis” discussed in the book’s analysis of sentencing guidelines and the death penalty: jurors and judges consider extra-legal factors as the opportunity for subjective discretion increases. The book illustrates that sentencing is a collaborative process involving legislators, prosecutors, corrections officials, judges and juries, and that plea bargaining plays a central role in the process.