Posted: August 1st, 2023

The Murder of Marie Smothers

The Murder of Marie Smothers
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The Murder of Marie Smothers
Introduction
With the high increase of juvenile offenders, criminal justice systems need to focus and decide on whether to concentrate on community safety or restorative justice. Age and in criminology have created various controversies uniquely where different justice systems deal with the crime related to age and gender differences (Hirschi, and Hindelang, 2017, page, 121-142) . Over the past three decades, the criminal justice system of England has made efforts to implement punishment for murder cases.
The England justice system, however, work towards implementation of a mandatory life sentence for murder where most offenders convicted for murder get charged for life imprisonment. Juvenile and adult murder cases are treated differently and given different verdicts in the most criminal justice system. Most murder cases involving children below the age of ten go uncharged—for instance, the murder of Marie smothers by an eight-year-old boy in Luciana. The paper is a case study about the killing of Marie Smothers and how age of offenders affects justice.
Case Analysis
The murder of Marie Smothers involves an eight-year-old boy whose name has never been disclosed. The eight-year-old boy intentionally shorts and eighty-seven to ninety-year-old grandmother. The aged grandmother was Louisiana boy caregiver, where the report does not show whether were related (Sohail, Arshad, and Habib, 2017, page 31-32). The incident got reported by the East Feliciano Sheriff’s department in a mobile home park in Louisiana. The gun used by the eight years of boy belonged to Smother, according to the boy’s father. During the criminal investigation, the close family, as well as a friend’s testimonies, stated that the two had a close and loving relationship where both shared a bedroom.
Marie Smothers’s murder happened on a Friday, where the boy shot his grandmother in the back of the head while watching television. The woman died instantly from the gunshot, where the police investigating the matter considered the case as intentional, although the eight-year-old boy told the police it was accidental (Sohail, Arshad, and Habib, 2017, page 31-32) . The boy, however, reported having played Grand Theft Auto IV game before the incident, where most people to date believe the game was the root cause of the crime. Violent games may have contributed to the murder case, but the main question is how the boy accessed the gun. Although the eight-year boy was not charged for the crime, the crime was considered by the police department as homicide, where the type of weapon used was a Caliber handgun. According to Louisiana laws, an individual below the age of ten is exempted from criminality. The boy, therefore, was allowed to join the parents and the name released due to the age factor.
Louisiana Juvenile Age Juridiction Laws
According to Louisiana laws, children under the age of ten are exempted from criminal responsibility according to the Louisiana state legislature code 14:13. Under the age of ten, any child who commits a crime is released to parents to undergo care from the parents and the community (Abdulraheem-Mustapha, 2020, page, 61-127). According to Louisiana, juvenile cases get categorized into three, truancy cases, runaway cases, and ungovernable truancy. Children under the age of eighteen get charged with truancy for going against the community and school rules. For several years now, the Louisiana criminal justice system has tried to raise the age of juvenile to age seventeen. For a long time now, the minimum age to convict a child has been ten years, while the maximum period been sixteen years. A child committing the crime at age fourteen get subjected to jurisdiction in the criminal court. For instance, a minor at the age of fourteen alleged for first and second-degree murder get prosecuted according to La. Children’s code, tit 111, Ch 4, Art. 857 (Abdulraheem-Mustapha, 2020, page, 61-127). Additionally, a child who commits a first and second-degree murder case at the age of fifteen get convicted in the adult criminal court system.
The development in Louisiana’s legal system has brought about various changes, including the transition of seventeen years according to the current policies and decision-making strategies (Doyle, 2019, page, 59-107). The shift is taking place in almost all aspects of the criminal justice system, for instance, use of detention, sentencing and community decisions, community-based prevention services, law enforcement arrest and diversion decisions as well as facility-based services.
According to the jurisdiction age of Louisiana, minors below the age of ten are in the process of psychosocial and neurological development where most get influenced by technology, for instance, the case of the eight-year-old boy and Marie Smothers murder. The eight-year-old boy, according to the detectives, killed the grandmother due to the influence of the Grand Theft Auto IV game (Abdulraheem -Mustapha, 2020, page, 61-127). Over one hundred years, the state of Louisiana has hesitated in reviewing the jurisdiction age of juveniles. Juvenile delinquency, both under age ten and below age fourteen, is contributed by the child’s brain development and legal precedents.
The first juvenile court system created in Louisiana in 1908, the court was primarily established for children under the age of sixteen year (Doyle, 2019, page, 59-107). According to the division of minority, the Louisiana juvenile justice system opinions on children from the age of six to fourteen are considered as infants between age fourteen to eighteen as puberty while those between age eighteen to twenty-five as adults. Children up to the age of seventeen years make various decisions based on brain development where most at this point, engage in impulsive behaviors. According to scientific researchers, the brain fully develops when an individual is in the early twenties. The neurodevelopment and psychosocial growth in a person distinguish one from a child or an adult. Minors are prone to engage in criminality frequently compared to adults. The neurodevelopment of a child may affect how a child perceives and processes information acquired from peers or media sources.
Brain development in a child takes place in two areas of the brain, the frontal lobe as well as the prefrontal cortex. Compared to adults, a child’s frontal lobe is less developed compared to that of an adult. The undeveloped frontal lobe in a child affect evaluation of reward and punishment, decision making, moral judgement, future consequences as well as risk assessment. An underdeveloped child’s brain is highly associated with making bad decisions (Doyle, 2019, page, 59-107) . According to Louisiana state, teenagers under the age of seventeen have less ability to make rational choices, therefore, treated differently from adults. In contrast, those below the age of ten cannot be charged with a crime due to their inability to make any decision regardless of the misconduct is intentional or not.
Impacts of Criminal Justice System and Injustices due to Age of the Offender
Various research has come up with different perspectives on the effects of criminal justice on the offender’s age as well as the injustices brought about by the offender’s age (Rocque, Posick, and Hoyle, 2015,page, 1-8). Some research findings, states that age is directly related or correlated to sentencing, other studies conclude that age should not affect sentencing and lastly, both age and sentencing has a positive association. The age of the offender tend to have an effect on the level of sentencing rendered to an offender. For instance, younger offenders may be privileged to serve a less sentence compared to older offenders. In most states, the criminal justice system has various impacts on the offender’s age (Rocque, Posick, and Hoyle, 2015,page, 1-8). For instance, before sentencing an offender, the justice system considers factors such as the ability to work, get an education as well as becoming an impactful member of the society. Enhancement of fairness and justice to all offenders from different age brackets, the criminal justice system should determine alternatives to imprisonment as well as sentencing to ensure everyone committing a crime serves or get punished for the crime regardless of the age.
Psychological research and development justify the different treatment of offenders, especially young offenders, young adults, and adults. The justification is based on the fact that most young offenders are still undergoing brain development (Rocque, Posick, and Hoyle, 2015,page, 1-8). Brain development and age factor should be considered during policy development as well as undertaking criminal justice practices. The criminal justice system, in collaboration with the psychological studies, concludes that people from different age groups react or adjust differently towards incarceration. According to most research, older offenders are more in prisons compared to young individuals.
Older individuals consist of one-third of the total population of inmates. The impact of age in the criminal justice system is real, where offenders aged fifty and above do not get leniency compared to younger offenders. Older offenders receive longer and harsh sentences compared to more adolescent offenders, regardless of the crime committed. The more former offenders are highly likely to undergo incarceration compared to younger offenders as well as receive lengthy terms in prison. The criminal justice system needs to develop policies based on legal, social as well as ethical during the imprisonment of older offenders to create justice and fairness.
The criminal justice system acts differently towards offenders from different age-group based on, health, previous convictions as well as the nature of the offense. In the case of the eight years boy, the court could not convict the offender for the murder due to consideration of the boy as a minor, health status as well as previous convictions (teng, et , al, 2020, page, 104-105). A crime committed by an eight-year-old is different from that determined by a fifteen, a twenty, and a fifty-year-old. Most of the time, the older offenders tend to have prior convictions as well as appear resilient and fit for incarceration compared to younger offenders. The likelihood of an eight-year-old boy to die or get sick in prison is higher compared to a fifty or a twenty-year-old boy.
Additionally, the age factor gets affected by the criminal justice legal factors where offenders with poor health conditions receive fewer sentences compared to healthy individuals. Health, age, and vulnerability are critical considerations to the most criminal justice system when sentencing offenders of different age-group (teng, et ,al, 2020, page, 104-105). According to most reports, children in crime tend to have a longer delinquency career. The child welfare association, mental health association as well as the juvenile justice system work together to reduce and curb child delinquency by avoiding integration of adult intervention.
How do you punish a child accused of crimes such as murder considering state laws against murder as well as equality in the criminal justice system. Various cases about children committing crimes are on the rise where most kids identified to suffer from bipolar, psychosis as well as various anger issues (teng, et ,al, 2020, page, 104-105). Some of the instances include the eight-year-old boy killing his eighty-seven-year-old grandmother, a four-year-old shooting the father in Saudi Arabia, eleven-year-old killing the stepmother as well as a nine-year-old girl stubbing an eleven-year-old girl in Washington.
Children Crime Risk Factors
The cause of Marie Smother’s murder has raised arguments from various researchers as well as legal practitioners. The boy not going through charges for the homicide is unfair towards Marie and the family. Even after considering the crime as intentional, the offender had a chance to walk freely without the court undertaking any justice (Cassady, 2017,page, 102-391) . The offense could have been caused by several factors known as risk factors. Instead of considering Grand theft auto as the leading root cause of the crime, the violent game can be considered as a risk factor towards criminality. Other risk factors in those cases include owing and accessing a gun, being male according to most theories as well as substance abuse. Marcia Smother’s murder surrounded by several risk factors where the intensity of the risk may be the cause of the crime.
Development of delinquent behaviors begins at childhood which is influenced by factors such as developmental factors, interactions as well as the environmental influence. The biological theory of delinquency states that delinquency in children is in-born, but ecological factors contribute highly to juvenile delinquency. Risk factors to delinquency are important in determine intervention and how to prevent misconduct in the future. The more the child gets exposed to risk factors, the more the child becomes vulnerable to delinquency. For instance, the eight-year-old boy’s habit of playing a violent video game may have led to the murder.
Age is among the risk-factors towards the crime where according to most cases reported in states like London, boys between the ages of ten to seventeen are highly reported for committing a crime. Children between age fifteen and eighteen report decrease in delinquency as well as those below the age of twenty-four. Early-onset delinquent children are likely to commit serious crimes in the future, therefore, charges or sanctioned to avoid repetition of similar crimes in the future.
Prenatal and perinatal factors contribute most to children’s delinquency, where most children develop various complications that manifest in the form of criminal behaviors (Cassady, 2017, page,102-391). The complications occur from conception to the first seven months of the fetus. Perinatal, on the other hand, involves conditions such as breathing difficulties, apnea as well as respiratory distress. The prenatal and perinatal conditions lead to abnormal behaviors among children during development where most children going through serious perinatal and prenatal health go through social -problems. The terms lead to criminality indirectly through the abnormalities caused. The defects include mental regardless, learning disabilities as well as brain dysfunctions. Prenatal and perinatal factors lead to aggression to most children hence criminality such as committing murder. Children from parents going through mental disorders may undergo issues during developments leading to child delinquency.
Boys are more vulnerable to prenatal and perinatal compared to girls experienced early during the developmental stage. For instance, children going through impulsiveness and hyperactivity get associated with delinquency more than healthy kids (Elrod, and Ryder, 2020). Parents taking alcohol and other drugs affect children’s growth as well as may lead to hyperactivity and aggression, leading to delinquency.
Family influences are a risk-factor towards delinquency in children; the eight-year-old boy being taken care of by the grandmother could have affected the child psychologically, which could have been triggered by the violent game to commit murder. Family structures and functioning affect children’s psychology as well as increase the risk of delinquency (van Berkel, Tucker, and Finkelhor, 2018,page, 244-253). The role of parents in children’s lives is significant where children feel secure compared to when raised by caregivers. There are many risk factors towards Marie smother murder. The eight-year-old boy being a minor and a child not aware of the consequences of the actions could have been accelerated and contributed by many factors.
The environmental and situational factors may have led to the murder case where the eight-year-old boy had easy access to the gun. The presence of drugs of firearms may contribute to delinquency, especially when the child has previous thoughts of experimenting or punishing someone. The eight-year-old boy’s accessibility to the gun led to the murder, where the inaccessibility of the firearm could have avoided the crime from happening (Hirschi, and Hindelang, 2017, page, 121-142). Availability of the weapon and exposure to media violence is an enormous contribution to the murder case. Most children are highly susceptible to abuse after watching or playing violent video games, where the videos tend to incite most children into violence. Violent video games lead to aggression and affect children’s behavior in various situations.
Impact of Video Games on the Eight-Year-Old Boy
According to most states, national standards, and child’s development, young children are exempted and excluded from the juvenile legal system (Kratcoski, Kratcoski, and Kratcoski, 2020, page, 71-97). Young children are considered vulnerable to most crimes and should not be exposed to harsh consequences regardless of age. Various states have set a minimum jurisdiction age of ten years, for instance, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, Kansas, Arkansas as well as American Samoa.
Other states have different minimum wages; for instance, the state of Washington believe children under the age of eight cannot understand crime and actions for the court to proceed. The state of California has no limit on age to cases such as murder, sexual penetration, oral copulation as well as sodomy and rape (van Berkel, Tucker, and Finkelhor, 2018,page, 244-253). Additionally, under the United States children’s rights, states are recommended to set criminal responsibility minimum age, which is not less than fourteen years. According to the United States, committee states should set a minimum period of sixteen years according to general international standards.
The high rise of violent games and the arrival of video games has led to violent and criminal behavior among most juveniles. Although the findings contradict, researchers conclude that violent video games may lead to aggressiveness hence increasing criminality as well as may reduce criminal acts (Hirschi, and Hindelang, 2017, page, 121-142). The explosion of technology has led to the easy accessibility of computers and other digital gadgets. According to the American psychological association and the Help write my thesis – APA task force on violent media, violent media games may lead to violent behaviors as well as may enhance empathy among most individuals. Violent games such as Grand Theft Auto IV, have increased violent acts to children, both short-term and long-term behaviors.
Additionally, the violent game increases anti-social behaviors among individuals as well as enhance actions prosaically by creating a source of concern among various individuals. The more a child is exposed or addicted to playing violent video games, the more the child becomes aggressive according to studies from both eastern and western countries (Kratcoski, Kratcoski, and Kratcoski, 2020, page, 71-97). Boys are prone to playing violent video games compared to girls, where boys are born with aggression according to the biological and social theory of criminology. Among the studies carried out, a small number of studies have shown that children under ten years can be affected by playing violent games. Nevertheless, the contributing factor leading to aggression in the game is the intense competition between the players making children want to experiment.
Violence is a consequence of aggression, although not all attack leads to destruction. Exposure to violent games is a risk factor in the case of Marie smother crime other than a cause of the crime. Violent behavior leads to mental instability, especially to children with anxiety and bipolar as well as may lead to easy accessibility of the gun. The eight-year boy may have been affected by the Grand Theft Auto IV, game mentally making it easier to access and search for a weapon in the house. The boy could have been aware of the availability of the gun, but after the game effect, he decided to check where the weapon had been kept.
The violent video game is not responsible for real-life violence of the boy; the effect of violent games on committing the crime is unconvincing. The video game is just but a blame game to cover up the minor’s crime. The primary cause and risk factor towards the crime is the accessibility of the gun in the house (van Berkel, Tucker, and Finkelhor, 2018,page, 244-253). The question should be based on how an eight-year-old boy accessed the gun that belonged to the grandmother. The eighty-seven-year-old grandmother could not have left the gun in the open. According to assumptions, the grandmother had left the gun in a wardrobe or somewhere closed to restrict accessibility. The boy shot the grandmother intentionally, and the cause of the crime was the easy availability of the firearm. The crime was committed due to the accessibility of the weapon, where precautions could have been taken by keeping the arm out of reach.
A gun should be kept far from children’s reach, for example, in a gun safe or hidden from children. Marie Smother could not have been killed if the gun was kept far from the boy regardless of the psychological and behavioral effect brought about by playing the video game. Regardless of children’s level of responsibilities, children are impulsive and unaware of criminal actions as well as consequences (Kratcoski, Kratcoski, and Kratcoski, 2020, page, 71-97). The murder blame should not go through replacement upon the eight-year-old boy but to the guardian and the boy’s parents for being irresponsible. An adult should not leave a gun in open as well as loaded with bullets for easy use. At least the weapon should not consist of shots to avoid cases such as unintended murder. Regardless of the violent video game, the crime could not have been committed in the absence of the gun.
Recomendation
To reduce cases of injustices due to different ages of offenders, the federal government should ensure justice by rendering punishment regardless of the crime instead of letting the offenders go free of the crime. Young children under the age of twelve, should be punished through counseling, community control, as well as frequent police monitoring. Neglecting the importance of sentencing and punishment leads to future delinquency since most children reported for crimes at a younger age end up getting involved in criminality in the future.
The investigators, as well as the criminal justice system, should consider various risk factors around the crime before conviction of offenders (Hirschi, and Hindelang, 2017, page, 121-142. Different aged offenders are affected by different types of risk factors. Additionally, to avoid injustice in the criminal justice system, police officers, as well as other members of criminal justice, should consider the protection of adolescents, children as well as delinquents. Lastly, the criminal justice system should train parents on how to regulate aggression among children, for instance, by restricting the use of violent video games as well as establishing healthy means of raising kids.
Conclusion
Age of offenders has led to various implications in the criminal justice system including injustice sentencing especially when most cases reported lately are those on children deliquency. The fact of Marie smother and the eight-year-old boy in Louisiana is among the many types of crimes in various states. The crime case raised controversy as to why the boy was not charged for the crime committed. According to the investigation, the Louisiana boy was guilty, and the murder was intentional even though the boy could have been affected by violent video games. The boy had no prior case of delinquency as well as had a loving relationship with the grandmother, making it challenging to identify the cause of the murder.
Age of offenders in the criminal justice system is among the top issues that lead to injustice sentencing. People of different age-group go through disparate sentencing; for instance, children under the age of ten, according to Louisiana laws, are not charged for crimes committed because the children undergo brain development, therefore unaware of actions and consequences. Age and sentencing in the criminal justice system are related to health, nature of the crime as well as prior convictions. Delinquents with prior convictions get different treatments from the criminal justice system where some may go through counseling, others set free while others incarcerated in the juvenile prison according to the state’s criminal justice system.
Some of the possible risk factors towards the murder of Marie Smother involves prenatal and postnatal conditions, environmental and circumstantial circumstance, and age as well as family structures. The ecological and indirect risk factor is closely related to events around the eight-year-old boy of Louisiana. Having easy access to the gun as well as having played the violent video game could have led to the murder. The relationship between the accessibility of the weapon and aggression caused by violent games, contributed to the killing.

List of References
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