Christopher D. Berk. “Children, Development, and the Troubled Foundations of Miller v. Alabama.” Law & Social Inquiry 44, no. 3 (2019): 752–770.
DOI: 10.1017/lsi.2018.18

Published version: Link
Preprint: SocArXiv / PhilPapers / SSRN

Overview

In Miller v. Alabama and related cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has placed developmental psychology at the center of constitutional limits on juvenile punishment. This article offers a critical examination of that developmental foundation. It argues that the Court’s reliance on general developmental claims about diminished culpability, responsibility, and character formation is philosophically unstable and normatively incomplete.

The article develops an alternative way to think about constitutional limits on extreme juvenile punishment. Rather than grounding limits primarily in developmental immaturity, it emphasizes the political and legal standing of children and the democratic obligations incurred when the state exercises coercive authority over individuals who lack full political voice. The result is a reframing of juvenile sentencing doctrine as a problem of democratic legitimacy and institutional authority, not only a problem of psychological development.

Central Question

What justifies constitutional limits on severe juvenile punishment, and should developmental science carry the weight the Court assigns to it?

Contribution

This article contributes to debates in:

  • constitutional theory of punishment
  • philosophy of criminal law
  • democratic legitimacy and coercive authority
  • juvenile justice and sentencing
  • expertise, evidence, and legal reasoning

Who might find this useful?

Scholars working on:

  • juvenile life without parole (JLWOP)
  • Eighth Amendment doctrine
  • adolescent culpability and responsibility
  • law and psychology
  • democratic theory and criminal justice

Related work by the author

Suggested citation

Berk, Christopher D. 2019. “Children, Development, and the Troubled Foundations of Miller v. Alabama.” Law & Social Inquiry 44(3): 752–770.

[Cite with BibTeX] 

@article{berk2019children,
  title={Children, Development, and the Troubled Foundations of Miller v. Alabama},
  author={Berk, Christopher D},
  journal={Law \& Social Inquiry},
  volume={44},
  number={3},
  pages={752--770},
  year={2019},
  publisher={Cambridge University Press}
}