IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i11p3932-d366248.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Juvenile Homicide Offenders Look Back 35 Years Later: Reasons They Were Involved in Murder

Author

Listed:
  • Kathleen M. Heide

    (Department of Criminology, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., SOC107, Tampa, FL 33620, USA)

Abstract

Murders committed by juveniles have been a serious concern in the United States for more than 50 years. Decisions by the United States Supreme Court during the 21st century have reduced the likelihood that juvenile homicide offenders will be sentenced to life without parole (LWOP). As a result of these decisions, hundreds of prisoners who were sentenced as juveniles for murder to LWOP under mandatory sentencing statutes or its equivalent are now eligible for the reconsideration of their sentences. In light of these changes in sentencing policies and practices, follow-up research on juveniles convicted of murder is essential. This research is part of a 35-year follow-up study of 59 boys who were convicted of murder and sentenced to adult prisons in a southeastern state, and initially interviewed in the early 1980s. Twenty of these men agreed to participate in clinical interviews during which they reflected upon the reasons (i.e., motives, circumstances) for which they got involved in criminal behavior as juveniles. These reasons, which broadly tap tenets of psychological and sociological theories, were analyzed in terms of predominance. Thereafter, the attention focuses on looking at the relationship of these 20 reasons to recidivism among the 18 juvenile homicide offenders (JHOs) who have been released from prison. JHOs who lived in neighborhoods where crime was routine and who engaged in crime because the opportunity presented itself were approximately 20 and 22.50 times more likely to be arrested post release and returned to prison, respectfully. The implications of these findings, the limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathleen M. Heide, 2020. "Juvenile Homicide Offenders Look Back 35 Years Later: Reasons They Were Involved in Murder," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-16, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:11:p:3932-:d:366248
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/3932/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/3932/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caudill, Jonathan W. & Trulson, Chad R., 2016. "The hazards of premature release: Recidivism outcomes of blended-sentenced juvenile homicide offenders," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 219-227.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Norair Khachatryan & Kathleen M. Heide, 2023. "Juvenile Homicide Offenders: Factors in Desistance after Incarceration," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-21, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reidy, Thomas J. & Sorensen, Jon R. & Cihan, Abdullah, 2018. "Institutional misconduct among juvenile offenders serving a blended sentence," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 99-105.
    2. Cuevas, Celina & Wolff, Kevin T. & Baglivio, Michael T., 2017. "Self-efficacy, aspirations, and residential placement outcomes: Why belief in a prosocial self matters," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-11.
    3. Matt DeLisi & Justin Alcala & Abdi Kusow & Andy Hochstetler & Mark H. Heirigs & Jonathan W. Caudill & Chad R. Trulson & Michael T. Baglivio, 2017. "Adverse Childhood Experiences, Commitment Offense, and Race/Ethnicity: Are the Effects Crime-, Race-, and Ethnicity-Specific?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-12, March.
    4. Hoskins, David & Tahir, Peggy & Del Cid, Margareth & Perez-Gualdron, Leyla & Tolou-Shams, Marina, 2020. "Ecological systems in relation to Latinx youth in the juvenile justice system: A narrative literature review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    5. Norair Khachatryan & Kathleen M. Heide, 2023. "Juvenile Homicide Offenders: Factors in Desistance after Incarceration," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Cuevas, Celina & Wolff, Kevin T. & Baglivio, Michael T., 2019. "Dynamic risk factors and timing of recidivism for youth in residential placement," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 154-166.
    7. Michael T. Baglivio & Kevin T. Wolff, 2017. "Prospective Prediction of Juvenile Homicide/Attempted Homicide among Early-Onset Juvenile Offenders," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-13, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:11:p:3932-:d:366248. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.