Proportionate Sentences for Juveniles

Although an extensive theoretical literature has developed on proportionality and desert as it relates to the sentencing of adult offenders, there has been less discussion of desert theory as it concerns the disposition of juvenile offenders. The present article addresses this latter topic. It is suggested that `deserved' punishments for juveniles should be scaled well below those applicable to adults, for three kinds of reasons: (1) juveniles' lesser culpability, (2) punishments' greater `bite' when applied to adolescents, and (3) a principle of greater `tolerance' in the application of penal censure to juveniles. The article argues that these three kinds of reasons must rest not just on factual claims regarding juveniles' lesser self-mastery or greater sensitivity to punishment, but must depend on different, age-related normative expectations for judging the behaviour of young persons. It is suggested that the present topic - of the criteria for proportionate punishment of juveniles - should be treated as analytically distinct from the question of whether a separate juvenile court should be retained or abolished.