Criminal Justice Question

Assignment Description

For your second critical analysis, you will be answering a series of prompts and questions that will require you to synthesize important aspects of the West Memphis Three case with the information on our courts and corrections segment that pertains to juvenile justice and delinquency. To successfully answer the questions, you should have a solid understanding of the lecture material for the module, readings, and primary sources of the case, and be able to connect these bodies of information in your analysis.

Assignment Requirements:

• You are NOT required to use additional resources external to the class, so notes and the module readings are sufficient. However, you can use additional resources if you would like.
• Assignment must be a minimum of 3 double spaced pages excluding the cover & reference pages, but no more than 4 double spaced pages excluding cover & reference pages. You may decide to write more for certain questions/prompts and less for others. This is perfectly fine as long as you sufficiently and thoroughly respond to each question/prompt.
• Meet the following APA style requirements: 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1-inch page margins, cover page, reference pages, and in text citations as needed. You do NOT need an abstract or authors note.
• Include the actual question or prompt as well as the number, and list it before your answer. These questions are included in the 3 to 4 page minimum/maximums.

Grading Criteria

Your assignment is graded on the following: organization and coherence, use of requested scholarly sources, contribution value of content, thoroughness of responses, clarity of writing and sentence structure, demonstration of integration of important concepts discussed in the course material, effective use of in-text citations as needed, grammar/spelling, APA format and title/reference pages, page requirements, and use of required external scholarly resources.

Important Assignment Notes: Anything less than 3 double spaced pages (excluding title and reference pages but including the prompts/questions), will result in automatic point deductions. Also, just because you meet the page requirements does not mean you have responded thoroughly to the prompts. If possible, try to not go over 4 double spaced pages as it is easy to go over this limit considering the nature of the assignment. Keep in mind that writing “more” does not equate to writing “well”. These page requirements are set for a reason. Page maximums help guide you to communicate clearly, succinctly, and include only relevant information. On the other hand, page minimums help guide you to respond in detail and answer questions completely.

QUESTIONS

1. The developmental stage of life a person influences their experiences of life events. This phenomenon is known as an “age-graded effect”. For example, experiencing family violence in early childhood has differential effects from experiencing family violence in the teenage years. Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin were 18, 17, and 16 respectively at the time of their arrests. Considering this experience, please answer the following question.

What effect did their developmental stage/ age at time have on their experiences with the criminal justice system (e.g., incarceration and other criminal justice process like investigations, court trials, etc. )? Essentially, if they had been older adults, would their experiences have been different? Thoroughly explain your answer by providing examples and using supportive evidence from the readings and/or notes. Somewhere in your answer, you should address the issue of the impact of solitary confinement on juveniles and very young adults.

2. Please pick two different issues discussed in the Rand & Lambie (2013) article “The impact of incarceration on juvenile offenders” article and explain them. Why are these issues important to address in juvenile justice?

3. After viewing the documentary video in the module (The Kids Serving 50 + Years for Murder), please pick the one case that stood out to you the most and discuss it. Why did this case stand out to you?

4. State and discuss any issue (fact, theme, concept, etc.) from the PowerPoint notes that you found engaging and that also pertains to the West Memphis Three case in some way. Explain the connection and your thoughts on this issue.

5. “Historically and even currently, certain juvenile justice policies are not developed in accordance with empirical research findings
Please pick one current or historical juvenile justice law or policy that is illustrative of the above statement and explain it. How could this policy or law be amended to be in agreement with empirical research findings on juvenile delinquency?