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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the now-we-know-who-to-blame dept.

Teenagers are more likely to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit because they are less able to make mature decisions, new research shows.

Experts have called for major changes to the criminal justice system after finding innocent younger people are far more likely admit to offences, even when innocent, than adults.

Those who carried out the study say teenagers should not be allowed to make deals where they face a lesser charge in return for pleading guilty. The study suggests young people are more likely to be enticed by these deals, and take what they see as an advantageous offer even when they have done nothing wrong.

Most criminal convictions in the UK and the USA occur as the result of guilty pleas, rather than trial. This means the majority of convictions are the result of decisions made by people accused of crimes rather than jurors.

The research was carried out in the USA, where a system known as "plea bargaining" is utilised, but the academics say their discovery has implications for countries across the world that allow teenagers accused of crimes to receive a sentence or charge reduction by pleading guilty. Specifically, the researchers recommend restricting reductions that may entice innocent teenagers into pleading guilty and making it easier for teenagers to change pleas after they have been entered.

Other research has found adolescents are less able to perceive risk and resist the influence of peers because of developmental immaturity.

https://phys.org/news/2018-03-teenagers-guilty-crimes-didnt-commit.html

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Saturday March 17 2018, @02:52PM (21 children)

    by bradley13 (3053) on Saturday March 17 2018, @02:52PM (#654081) Homepage Journal

    Another solution for the jail population would be to re-introduce punishments other than jail. For example: what is wrong with corporal punishment [wikipedia.org] for minor property crimes? To the extent that punishment is intended to be a deterrent, it might well be more effective than jail time, especially for repeat offenders. Where restitution is appropriate, then work in the person's free time. Teenage kid sprayed graffiti on a building? Spend half-a-year's worth of Saturdays picking up trash along the highway.

    Putting someone in jail really ought to be a last resort, used only when public safety is an issue, or when a repeat offender simply won't stop. First, jail is outrageously expensive. Second, but even more important: destroys your life: if you had a job and home when you go in, you won't anymore when you get out.

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @04:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @04:04PM (#654110)

    > what is wrong with corporal punishment

    You'll know as soon as someone dies from it (directly or indirectly) or suffers crippling injuries.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by unauthorized on Saturday March 17 2018, @04:18PM (18 children)

    by unauthorized (3776) on Saturday March 17 2018, @04:18PM (#654114)

    For example: what is wrong with corporal punishment [wikipedia.org] for minor property crimes?

    I was going to mod you funny, and then I realized you are serious. What's wrong is that it's a form of torture. Torture is bad, mkay?

    • (Score: 3, Disagree) by bradley13 on Saturday March 17 2018, @04:50PM (6 children)

      by bradley13 (3053) on Saturday March 17 2018, @04:50PM (#654131) Homepage Journal

      Torture? Um...not really. Torture implies some sadistic or ulterior motive.

      Why is inflicting physical pain as punishment morally worse than depriving someone of their physical freedom? Serious question. Seems to me that prison is a far harsher penalty, by almost any measure.

      --
      Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Justin Case on Saturday March 17 2018, @05:18PM (1 child)

        by Justin Case (4239) on Saturday March 17 2018, @05:18PM (#654146) Journal

        Prison often includes torture.

        What's more, the "tough on crime" authoritarian bootlickers like it that way.

        • (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:11PM

          by bradley13 (3053) on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:11PM (#654164) Homepage Journal

          Yeah, then there's that. Jokes about "sphincter control problems", as though prison assault and rape is supposed to be part of the punishment. The US prison system is a sick place, and some USAians are pretty sick in their joking acceptance of this situation.

          --
          Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
      • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:21PM (2 children)

        by unauthorized (3776) on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:21PM (#654167)

        Torture implies the the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty. [dictionary.com].

        Why is inflicting physical pain as punishment morally worse than depriving someone of their physical freedom?

        I am not obliged to defend this position because I do not hold it.

        • (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Saturday March 17 2018, @09:49PM (1 child)

          by bradley13 (3053) on Saturday March 17 2018, @09:49PM (#654230) Homepage Journal

          Say what? You _do_ hold the position that corporal punishment is morally worse than imprisonment, so - yes you do need to defend this. BTW, you definition of torture agrees with mine, and does not apply to judicially administered punishment.

          --
          Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
          • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:19PM

            by unauthorized (3776) on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:19PM (#654236)

            No, I hold the position that both are immoral unless we have to to isolate a person from society either for their protection or for the protection of those around them. I would rather society acts to minimize harm and only imprison people if it's necessary to prevent further harm. Furthermore I hold the position that corporal punishment does not reduce the risk of re-offending as much as imprisonment and in fact is likely to increase the risk, through this is an opinion I've formed through anecdotal observations, so I' don't feel qualified to argue that point, which is why I did not.

            and does not apply to judicially administered punishment

            So if the law decreed it's not rape to punish people by tying them to a pillory and publicly violating them as a form of "judicially administered punishment" would you consider that not to be rape? Morality is what we use to define laws, not the other way around. Just because a society decides to accept an action as legal, that doesn't make the action moral.

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday March 19 2018, @12:36PM

        by Bot (3902) on Monday March 19 2018, @12:36PM (#654842) Journal

        I have nothing against not overly hard slapping the face or the butt of a meatbag, it improves circulation.

        Having said that, I fear that many small crimes are from people in need of attention. Which means that they will subconsciously like the punishment. Which means it is ineffective.

        I agree on reparations instead of jail time. Caught soiling, you clean. Not at midnight, in front of your peers.

        --
        Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday March 17 2018, @05:56PM (8 children)

      by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Saturday March 17 2018, @05:56PM (#654156)

      Wait.

      Spanking a child that has ignored multiple verbal warnings, timeouts and "consequences", but has continued with an unacceptable and publicly disruptive behavior is torture?

      You must led a blessed life if you've never been in a market and encountered a child creating a major disruption while the parent just keeps telling them stop what they are doing and to stop knocking stuff off the shelves and shouting at the top of their lungs.

      While I will agree that putting a dog collar on a child and chaining them up in the front yard because they won't eat their vegetables is unacceptably extreme. A single solid smack on the butt will enforce the conditioning that "break the rules==get punished".

      --
      "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by unauthorized on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:38PM (2 children)

        by unauthorized (3776) on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:38PM (#654172)

        Welcome to cognitive dissonance. It's a bitch isn't it?

        Spanking a child that has ignored multiple verbal warnings, timeouts and "consequences", but has continued with an unacceptable and publicly disruptive behavior is torture?

        If your child behaves like that, then that raises some questions about how you raised them.

        But to return to your point, what exactly disqualifies it as an act of torture?

        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 18 2018, @12:01AM

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday March 18 2018, @12:01AM (#654282)

          If your child behaves like that, then that raises some questions about how you raised them.

          Every snowflake is special, they are all unique and what works on all the snowflakes you've ever known may not work at all on another one.

          Now, beatings, they generate a fairly predictable result - not a desirable one: fear, cowering, resentment, retaliation, explosive retribution...

          --
          🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday March 19 2018, @12:44PM

          by Bot (3902) on Monday March 19 2018, @12:44PM (#654848) Journal

          > what exactly disqualifies it as an act of torture?
          The "excruciating" adjective prefixed to pain in the definition I have read on this thread, I guess.

          --
          Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:41PM (2 children)

        by Thexalon (636) on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:41PM (#654173)

        A single solid smack on the butt will enforce the conditioning that "break the rules==get punished".

        No, it enforces the conditioning that if you're bigger than the other person you have a right to hurt them if they don't do what you want them to do. In other words, "might makes right".

        You want to punish a kid who's causing a racket in the toy aisle? Take them out of the store as quickly as possible, without any toys. Let them scream and cry and stomp in the car all they want, you still won't get them the toy, even if you'd planned on giving them a new toy that day prior to the fit. That enforces the conditioning that "throw a fit==don't get what you want".

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
        • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:21PM (1 child)

          by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday March 17 2018, @10:21PM (#654237) Journal

          Yes. "Spare the rod, spoil the child" is yet another example of Iron Age thinking that would be best retired.

          Spanking is the wrong way to condition kids. It rarely works as supposedly intended, more often pushing the child into defiance and rebelliousness. Worse, it can break the spirit. And it can too easily be misused to feed an adult's secret sadistic streak or desire to take out their frustrations on someone who can't resist, rather than as a righteous consequence for misbehavior. Schools gave up on corporal punishment for all those reasons and more.

          It also conditions the punishers, and corrodes society. It's part of the ancient East vs West debate, over which kind of society works better, a free society or a slave one? Over and over, people are tempted to go the slave route, as long as they get to be the masters. Funny how hardly anyone volunteers to be a slave. Apart from seeming more productive, it can also seem safer. But it infantilizes citizens. It's instructive to think about the tone Mubarak of Egypt took with the citizens, when he was falling from power during the Arab Spring. His whole attitude was that the citizens were ungrateful children. That's all too common with authoritarian leaders.

          Sadly, Christianity has a decidedly authoritarian streak. The entire monotheistic setup, with a Big Man, the biggest of all, God, in charge of everything, the "Jesus is Lord" stuff-- these are the prayers of those who want their hands held and not to have to think for themselves, want to leave it all in God's hands. "Spare the rod, spoil the child" fits perfectly with such authoritarian thinking.

          I won't forget the time the city taped a notice to my door, with the accusation that the grass in the lawn was too high. What really infuriated me was not the particular accusation, but the disrespectful tone of the notice. It threatened, intimidated, insulted, made unwarranted assumptions, even exaggerated to the point of lying, and most of all, talked down as if the recipients were naughty children who would be punished if they didn't stop misbehaving. I gave several city officials and politicians a long earful about that. I imagine most of my fellow citizens who receive such notices take a much more submissive and compliant attitude, more's the pity. The neighboring city actually escalated a lawn issue all the way to confinement, imprisoning a good citizen for the crime of not having mowed his lawn, and sadly, he didn't seem to think it was entirely unwarranted.

          The way our law enforcement is handled furthers this mentality as well as feeds the Prison Industrial Complex. A finding such as this about teens adds to the pressure for reform. It's not just teens. Many an adult has also been pressured into confessing. See these articles about innocent suspects who were pushed into taking Alford pleas: https://www.propublica.org/series/ignoring-innocence [propublica.org]

          • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday March 19 2018, @11:12AM

            by Bot (3902) on Monday March 19 2018, @11:12AM (#654800) Journal

            >Sadly, Christianity has a decidedly authoritarian streak. The entire monotheistic setup, with a Big Man, the biggest of all, God, in charge of everything

            then, why is He hiding?

            A. because he does not exist?
            You cannot criticize a religion basing on the rejection of its principles, because it's silly. You are already rejecting an impossible to verify statement, rationalizing the choice is a waste of time.

            A. indeed, something does not compute...
            This is better.
            1. trying to wrestle authority from the god is trying to wrestle the dream from the dreamer.
            2. among men the christian hierarchy is reversed, both in scripture which you obviously did not read and in tradition. Servus servorum.

            --
            Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:48PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:48PM (#654176)

        Spanking a child that has ignored multiple verbal warnings, timeouts and "consequences", but has continued with an unacceptable and publicly disruptive behavior is torture?

        Could you do that to an adult? Could a man slap his wife around a bit for disobeying him, as long as it didn't go too far? No? Then why the special pleading, here? Unless it's in self-defense or defense of another from physical aggression, violence is not the morally correct answer, regardless of whether or not you can get desirable results by using it. The ends do not justify the means, even assuming the ends are good.

        • (Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday March 18 2018, @04:41AM

          by sjames (2882) on Sunday March 18 2018, @04:41AM (#654346) Journal

          It has been a long time since a wife had even a perceived duty to obey, so of course corporal punishment for not obeying is out of bounds.

    • (Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday March 18 2018, @04:31AM (1 child)

      by sjames (2882) on Sunday March 18 2018, @04:31AM (#654342) Journal

      And locking someone away from everyone they love, treating them like dirt, and feeding them the crappiest thing you can find that someone is willing to call edible (someone who knows he will never be asked to eat it) for a few years somehow isn't torture?

      • (Score: 2) by unauthorized on Sunday March 18 2018, @04:58AM

        by unauthorized (3776) on Sunday March 18 2018, @04:58AM (#654352)

        I never said I'm in favor of the American prison system.

  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday March 17 2018, @07:17PM

    by mhajicek (51) on Saturday March 17 2018, @07:17PM (#654186)

    Because no other form of punishment is nearly as profitable as prison, and profit is the true motive.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek