Patrick T. McCormick

Patrick T. McCormick is an associate professor of Christian ethics at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. In the following viewpoint he criticizes the growing practice of trying juvenile offenders as if they were adults, incarcerating juvenile offenders with adults, and even putting prisoners to death for crimes they committed as minors. McCormick argues that psychological research—as well as common sense— shows that adolescents think and judge differently than adults, and that punishing them as if they were adults is therefore unfair. Moreover, he warns, doing so may be detrimental to society, since juvenile offenders tried and punished as adults are more likely to offend again.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How many juvenile offenders were being held in prisons and adult correctional institutions in 1998, according...