ABSTRACT
Recent US Supreme Court decisions regarding the sentencing of juveniles convicted of murder have been based on the premise that juveniles are developmentally immature, will mature as they age, and, therefore, can be rehabilitated in most cases. One indicator of maturity is remorse, that is, feeling genuinely badly for the harm caused by one’s behavior to others and/or to the community. Research in neuroscience has found that the development of remorse is related to a region in the frontal lobes of the brain, which is not fully developed in adolescence. Given that remorse has biological underpinnings as well as social influences, is the Supreme Court correct in positing that most JHOs will mature over time? This chapter evaluates whether 22 juvenile homicide offenders appear genuinely remorseful at two points in time: shortly after their conviction and confinement in adult prison when they were teenagers (Time 1) and 35 years later (Time 2) when they were men in their early 50s. The study evaluates the presence of remorse at Time 1 and Time 2, compares change in remorse over time, and then examines remorse or its absence in the context of failure post release, measured as reincarceration. Findings showed modest support for hypotheses that posited JHOs would become more remorseful over time and that JHOs who felt remorseful would be less likely to be reincarcerated. Implications of this exploratory study and its limitations are discussed.
