Dangerousness and the Death Penalty: an Examination of Juvenile Homicides in Kentucky

Abstract

WestAs in several other states, Kentucky passed legislation to get tough with juveniles and battle a rising tide of delinquency and violent crime. The necessity of this policy was unquestioned. This analysis examines national juvenile crime statistics and data on juvenile homicides in Kentucky. It uses the Barnett scale to examine whether juvenile murderers were more deliberate, random, or vicious killers over time. The results of the study do not support the get tough movement or the continued availability of the death penalty for juveniles in Kentucky.

Cheating the Hangman

“…There are a number of methodological ambiguities that must be contemplated in evaluating the import of previous research in this area. To illustrate, although Vito and Keil's (2004) study buttressed the position that Kentucky's Youthful Offender Act had little if any effect on juvenile homicidal behavior, it is important to recognize that pretest-posttest designs are only suggestive at best because an ongoing trend in juvenile homicides might have affected their results. For example, if juvenile crime was trending upward immediately prior to the imple mentation of Kentucky's Youthful Offender Act, then it is entirely plausible that the actuation of this "get tough" law might have actually mollified juvenile violence.…”

“…One of the few studies that investigated the deterrent effect of the juvenile death penalty did so within the larger context of "get tough" policies in Kentucky. In this study, Vito and Keil (2004) used a pretest-posttest research design to assess whether juvenile homicidal behavior changed (more or less deliberate, random, or vicious) as a result of the implementation of Kentucky's Youthful Offender Act. This law was designed specifically to attenuate violence among young people by lowering the age a youth could be transferred to adult court, thereby making more young people in Kentucky susceptible to the death penalty.…”