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Abstract

The United States is the only industrialized country that

sentences individuals to spend the remainder of their lives in

prison for a crime they committed before the age of eighteen.

The justice system established the sentencing of juveniles to life

in prison without the possibility of parole to deter juvenile

delinquency. Life without parole was regarded as an appropriate

punishment following the rise of juvenile crime during the 1980s

and 1990s. However, as psychological differences between

juveniles and adults became more prominent, society began to

regard life without the possibility of parole as a cruel and

unusual punishment. Although some juveniles commit heinous

crimes that warrant a life in prison, others receive the same

punishment for a crime that does not merit a punishment of this

extent.

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