| This paper will examine juvenile executions in the United
States throughout its history, especially looking at
socio-historical trends. Historic era, geographic region,
race of offender, sex of offender, and reason for execution
were hypothesized to influence the rate of juvenile
executions. In addition, significant interactive effects
between race of offender and several other variables were
predicted. Various juvenile justice reforms were
hypothesized to influence the rate of white juvenile
executions, but not African-American juvenile executions.
Multiple sources of data were utilized in looking at
juvenile executions through American history. Significant
results were found for crosstabulations between race of
offender and the following variables: decade of execution,
region of execution, and reason for execution.
Specifically, African-American juveniles witnessed extremely
disparate rates of execution compared to white juveniles
between 1890 and 1959, in the South, and for the crime of
rape. With the exception of the Progressive juvenile
justice reform movement (c. 1880-1920), juvenile justice
reforms have had little impact on white juvnile execution
rates.
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Updated 05/20/2006