Forensic assessment of criminal maturity in juvenile homicide offenders in the United States

By Michael Welner , Matt DeLisi , Heather M. Knous-Westfall , David Salsberg , Theresa Janusewski

Highlights

• The United States Supreme Court in Jones (2021) reinforced the Miller decision to allow sentencing judges the discretion to determine whether convicted killers under age 18 warrant a life sentence.

• The Miller decision dictates individualized sentencing, citing psychosocial disadvantages, immaturity, potential evolving risk, and how these qualities differ for each defendant.

• The expressions of immaturity in crime are not; however, accounted for in the same way that expressions of major mental illness reference years of crime-specific research and diagnostic standardization. For this reason, forensic assessments in this emerging area remain unguided and vulnerable to bias.

• A complete assessment of the offender should include questions in the following domains: developmental, scholastic/vocational, social, interpersonal, traumas, antisocial history, and psychiatric/medical.

• We present questions to more fully and accurately inform the individualized sentencing requirement in Miller cases.

Forensic Science International: Mind and Law(4): 2023.