A life less valuable? Adjudication and sentencing outcomes for perpetrators of child homicide.
Date
2013
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Killing a child almost universally galvanizes great outrage among the public. Despite this condemnation, little is known about how and if this abhorrence of killing a child translates into criminal justice practices. The purpose of this dissertation is to advance our understanding about the imposition of the law in cases of child homicide using a mixed-method design. The two general research objectives of the current study are: (1) to explore whether there are any differentials in the application of the law (e.g. decisions to prosecute, probability of conviction for offenders, and sentences received) for those who kill children compared to those who kill older victims; (2) to gain insight into the moral gradation of child homicide by exploring whether certain types of child homicide or certain perpetrators of the crime are treated more harshly than others. ☐ Quantitative analysis of a nationally representative data collected from prosecutors' offices in 33 large urban counties revealed that while killing a child did not have any effect on the probability of conviction, those who killed children received significantly shorter sentences than those who killed older victims. Being a mother-offender exuded a significant influence over the sentencing decision of the courts. ☐ Thematic and qualitative content analyses of data from the State of Maryland showed that the majority of death eligible cases with child victims either originated in a romantic conflict or involved a sexual assault on the child. No definitive conclusions could be drawn about the criteria that state attorneys in Maryland considered in determining whether or not to seek capital punishment in a particular child homicide case. In fact, there were several instances where legally similar crimes and offenders received different treatment. No female defendant in the Maryland sample was tried capitally, including the two women who were mothers to their victims. Contrasting these cases with female child homicide perpetrators who were sentenced to the death penalty in other states, however, suggests that prosecutors need to overcome a number of challenges to successfully portray female defendants as death-worthy.
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Keywords
Adjudication, Sentencing, Child homicide