• DOI:10.1163/157181810X528706
• Corpus ID: 144506078

From Rapists to Superpredators: what the practice of capital punishment says about race, rights and the American child

@article{Linde2011FromRT,
  title={From Rapists to Superpredators: what the practice of capital punishment says about race, rights and the American child},
  author={Robyn Linde},
  journal={The International Journal of Children's Rights},
  year={2011},
  volume={19},
  pages={127-150}
}

• Robyn Linde
• Published 2011
• Law
• The International Journal of Children's Rights

At the turn of the 20 th century, the United States was widely considered to be a world leader in matters of child protection and welfare, a reputation lost by the century's end. This paper suggests that the United States' loss of international esteem concerning child welfare was directly related to its practice of executing juvenile off enders. The paper analyzes why the United States continued to carry out the juvenile death penalty after the establishment of juvenile courts and other protections for child criminals. Two factors allowed the United States to continue the juvenile death penalty after most states in the international system had ended the practice: the politics of American federalism and a system of racial subordination that excluded some juvenile off enders from the umbrella of child protection measures, a conclusion suggesting that racial prejudice has interfered with U.S. compliance with international norms of child welfare and juvenile justice.