Reference no: EM133229102

Assignment:

Thinking Like a Criminologist

Girl Interrupted

Fourteen-year-old Daphne is a product of Boston's best private schools; she lives with her wealthy family on Beacon Hill. Her father is an executive at a local financial services conglomerate and makes close to $1 million per year. Daphne, however, has a hidden, darker side. She is always in trouble at school, and teachers report that she is impulsive and has poor self-control. At times she can be kind and warm, but on other occasions she is obnoxious, unpredictable, insecure, and hungry for attention. She is overly self-conscious about her body and has a drinking problem. Daphne attends AA meetings and is on the waiting list at High Cliff Village, a residential substance abuse treatment program. Her parents seem intimidated by her and confused by her complexities; her father even filed a harassment complaint against her once, saying she had slapped him.

Despite repeated promises to get her life together, Daphne likes to hang out most nights in the Public Gardens and drink with neighborhood kids. On more than one occasion she went to the park with her friend and confidant Chris, a quiet boy who had his own set of personal problems. His parents had separated, and subsequently he began to suffer severe anxiety attacks. He stayed home from school and was diagnosed with depression for which he took two drugs-Zoloft, an antidepressant, and Lorazepam, a sedative. One night, Daphne and Chris met up with Michael, a 44-year-old man with a long history of alcohol problems. After a night of drinking, a fight broke out and Michael was stabbed, his throat cut, and his body dumped in the pond. Daphne was quickly arrested when soon after the attack she placed a 911 call to police, telling them that a friend had "jumped in the lake and didn't come out." Police searched the area and found Michael's slashed and stabbed body in the water; he had been disemboweled by Chris and Daphne in an attempt to sink the body.

At a waiver hearing, Daphne admits that she participated in the killing but cannot articulate what caused her to get involved. She had been drinking and remembers little of the events. She says that she was flirting with Michael and that Chris stabbed him in a jealous rage. She speaks in a flat, hollow voice and shows little remorse for her actions. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, she claims, and after all it was Chris, not she herself, who had the knife. Later Chris testifies, claiming that Daphne instigated the fight and egged him on, taunting him that he was too scared to kill someone. Chris says that when she was drunk, Daphne often talked of killing an adult because she hated older people, especially her parents.

Daphne's parents claim that although she has been a burden with her mood swings and volatile behavior, she is still a child and can be helped with proper treatment. They are willing to supplement any state intervention with privately funded psychiatrists. Given that this is her first real offense and because of her age (14), her parents believe that home confinement with intense treatment is the best course. The district attorney, however, wants Daphne treated as an adult and waived to adult court where, if she is found guilty, she can receive a 25-year sentence for second-degree murder; there is little question of her legal culpability.

Writing Assignment

Take the role of a defense lawyer in the juvenile court. Write a brief to the juvenile court judge that could be used at the waiver hearing. Use your essay to persuade the judge to keep Daphne in the juvenile court, where she could be treated rather than punished. How would you convince the court that Daphne's crime was a function of some abnormal trait or condition that is amenable to treatment? Be sure to refute the notion that she is a calculating criminal who understood the seriousness of her actions. Your response must be 300 words or more.