Excerpt
from Appropriateness of juveniles being tried in adult courts
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.......
CONAN:
Joining us now by phone from his home outside
It's
good of you to speak with us.
Professor
LAURENCE STEINBERG (
CONAN:
Very well, thanks. Professor Steinberg, in the
Prof.
STEINBERG: No, and that's part of the 4) ____________ and part of the crux of the
issue that we're talking about today. People become 5) ____________ in different ways, at
different ages, and the ages are kind of all over the place, 6) ____________ under
criminal law.
CONAN:
What are the constitutional requirements for someone to stand trial in adult
court?
Prof.
STEINBERG: Well, the Constitution 7)
____________
that individuals who are charged
in criminal court be competent to stand 8) ____________
, and that means that they
understand the charges against them, they understand the roles of the various 9)
____________
in court, they can assist counsel and they're capable of making
important legal 10)
____________
about waiving their rights, including whether to take
the stand or not, or whether to accept a plea agreement that's proffered by the
prosecution.
CONAN:
And those kinds of judgments--are 17-year-old kids typically capable of making
them, and 18-year-olds--you know, 16-year-olds not? I mean, you say there's no
dividing line.
Prof.
STEINBERG: Well, our group just finished the first-ever national study of 11)
____________
to stand trial, in which we administered the same basic test of
competence to about 1,500 individuals 12) ____________
in age from 11 to 24. And what we
found was that, under 16, there are high numbers of kids who would 13)
____________
a
competence test--that is, kids who would be not competent to stand trial by the
same standards that we use to exclude 14)
____________
ill individuals from court. We
did find, however, that the proportions of 16- and 17-year-olds who were
competent to stand trial, according to this measure, were 15)
____________
to the
proportions of adults.
CONAN:
That's interesting. Were you testing just normal kids?
Prof.
STEINBERG: Yes. We were testing 16)
____________
kids, half of whom were in the
community and half of whom were in detention, but these were not children with
mental retardation or with mental 17) ____________ .
CONAN:
It's interesting--this might be a little bit off the subject, but have you
looked at this in terms of, you know, evolution? I mean, in hunter-gatherer 18)
____________
, where we evolved over the years, I mean, most kids when they're 13,
14, 15 are full-fledged adults.
Prof.
STEINBERG: Well, yes and no. I mean, in most societies, the 19)
____________
between childhood and adulthood is a gradual one. So even in those less
industrialized societies, 13- and 14-year-olds probably didn't have the same
range of responsibilities that adults did. They weren't treated as children, but
they kind of had a learner's 20)
____________
for a lot of those activities.
Questions
1. At what age do people become adults, according to Prof. Steinberg?
__________________________________________________________
2. What does "being competent to stand trial" mean?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
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3. How did the proportions of 16 and 17 year-olds who were competent to stand trial compare to adults in his study?
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4. Are many young people under 16 competent to stand trial?
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