Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

A Developmental Perspective on Juvenile Justice -- Developmental Psychology Goes to Court / Laurence Steinberg, Robert G. Schwartz -- Adolescent Development, Mental Disorders, and Decision Making of Delinquent Youths / Alan E. Kazdin -- Adolescents' Capacities as Trial Defendants -- Adjudicative Competence and Youthful Offenders / Richard J. Bonnie, Thomas Grisso -- Juveniles' Waiver of Legal Rights: Confessions, Miranda, and the Right to Counsel / Barry C. Feld -- What We Know about Youths' Capacities as Trial Defendants / Thomas Grisso -- Researching Juveniles' Capacities as Defendants / Jennifer L. Woolard, N. Dickon Reppucci -- Clinical and Forensic Evaluation of Competence to Stand Trial in Juvenile Defendants / Richard Barnum -- Youths' Trial Participation as Seen by Youths and Their Attorneys: An Exploration of Competence-Based Issues / Ann Tobey, Thomas Grisso, Robert Schwartz -- The Role of Lawyers in Promoting Juveniles' Competence as Defendants / Emily Buss -- Culpability and Youths' Capacities -- Penal Proportionality for the Young Offender: Notes on Immaturity, Capacity, and Diminished Responsibility / Franklin E. Zimring -- Criminal Responsibility in Adolescence: Lessons from Developmental Psychology / Elizabeth S. Scott -- Researching Adolescents' Judgment and Culpability / Elizabeth Cauffman, Laurence Steinberg -- The Social Cognitive (Attributional) Perspective on Culpability in Adolescent Offenders / Sandra Graham, Colleen Halliday -- Contexts of Choice by Adolescents in Criminal Events / Jeffrey Fagan -- Can the Courts Fairly Account for the Diminished Competence and Culpability of Juveniles? A Judge's Perspective / Honorable Gary L. Crippen.

During the 1990s, almost every state changed its laws so that youths charged with serious crimes could be tried and punished as though they were adults. But do youths have the maturity to participate as defendants in their trials in adult criminal courts? Are they equally as culpable as adults when they commit the same offenses?

In Youth on Trial, experts in psychology and law -- affiliates of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice -- take a developmental perspective to examine these important questions. They reach troubling conclusions and suggest the need for substantial reform in law, public policy, and practice regarding youthful offenders.

Part I offers a foundation for a developmental perspective on juvenile justice. In Part II, the contributors take aim at the presumption that youths are capable of participating meaning-fully in their trials in adult criminal courts based simply on the fact that they are charged with serious offenses. Theory and research from psychology, psychiatry, and law are brought to bear on questions of youths' capacities to understand and decide important matters as defendants in their trials. Contributors also review the challenges that youths' immaturity presents for their attorneys, as well as clinical and forensic issues in assessing youths' competence to stand trial.

Part III focuses on questions of culpability and mitigation. If youth are to be punished like adults, they should be equally blameworthy with regard to the manner in which their offenses were committed. The contributors address this issue by drawing on pertinent legal precedent and theory, as well as empirical knowledge of the psychological and social capacities of youth relative to those of adults. Are youth enough like adults to make appropriate a punitive response that equals the sentences that adults would receive?

Underlying the entire work is the assumption that an effective legal response to youthful offenders cannot ignore the developmental realities of adolescence. Youth on Trial makes a compelling call, based on sound legal and psychological arguments, to introduce developmentally sensitive public policy into our juvenile justice system.