Cyntoia Brown’s Case

On the issue of Juvenile sentencing, American laws have always faced harsh criticism when compared to other developed countries. America leads in the number of youths that are under incarceration. Moreover, laws on the issue vary greatly from state to state.

Flores (2020) argues that in 2004, while Cyntonia was 16 years old, she was arrested for murder and sentenced with no parole until she is 67 years old. Since the jury and the courts were convinced that she was guilty and that was her fate. Jonny Allen had solicited for sex in exchange for money from her and they headed to his home. She had got scared that the man (Jonny Allen) would kill her and shot the man who had solicited for sex from her at his residence. The man had been boasting to her how he has many guns in the house. This attracted journalists who even did a documentary on her named “Me facing life: Cyntoia’s Story”.

Birman, D. H., & Daniel H. Birman Productions (2020) argue that they carried out interviews with Cyntoia as well as her biological and adoptive families while conducting their research. From the stories that emerged, most women in Brown’s family had been victims of rape and abuse, her grandmother and mother had all been subjected to a series of violent rape from very tender ages. Her grandmother’s rape resulted in the birth of her mother who grew up unsupervised, involved in drugs, and gave birth to Cyntoia at a tender age of 16.

They conducted a more in-depth analysis of the Cyntoia life with other professionals and realized that since many sexual acts were constantly forced on her, she led a sex trafficking or a slavery form of life. She could periodically run away from where she lived and always met other individuals who could subject her to the same form of life. Kuthroat is the last man she found. He forced her to make sure she gets money and that is how she ended up meeting the man that she killed (Flores, 2020).

While studying Cyntoia’s case, they conducted a study of women of color that are marginalized within the United States. From the interviews, the girls informed them that the main reason they ran away from their families is by being exposed to abuse. This forces them to engage in behaviors that are of high risk such as soliciting or hitchhiking. It is while engaging in these behaviors that they meet men who take advantage of them and turn them into prostitution. Sometimes, for them to get access to good clothes, they have to sleep with male predators. This is the route that finally leads them to behind bars (Flores, 2020).

This method of collecting data was efficient since it mainly relied on interviews. Interviews are an efficient method of data collection as they are relatively cheap and accurate. Also, with interviews, it takes little time to collect the required data. The data was reported through making a documentary about the case of Cyntoia as well as writing a book on the plight the marginalized girls face.  It is ethically wrong to subject young women to sexual abuse and/or rape. Additionally, when young women defend themselves from this and cause harm to the perpetrator, they are blamed and even given harsh sentences.

According to Birman (2020), from this case and research, and specifically in Tennesse where Cyntonia got her sentence, there is been a policy already in place against children being sentenced to practicing prostitution. Also, harsh sentencing laws in the state are being reviewed by the legislators. Among which, teenagers are not allowed to be sentenced for more than 15 years without parole. In the end, Cyntoia finally received parole in 2019 after serving for fifteen years. 

Reference

Birman, D. H., & Daniel H. Birman Productions. (2020). Me facing life: Cyntoia’s story.

Flores, J. (2020, September 25). Clemency for Cyntoia Brown was long overdue. The Conversation.

Birman. D (2020, May 29). Reflecting on the case of Cyntoia Brown – talking with the director of ‘Murder to Mercy’. The Conversation.

Instructions

2pgs, 2sources, APA
Investigate public policies that were instituted based on research
conducted on a criminal justice topic involving police, courts, and/or
corrections. What does the research explain? How did the researchers
come to the conclusion that a particular intervention would alleviate
the problem being studied? What type of study was conducted? Was it
the best method for researching the problem? Explain. How was data
collected, reported and evaluated? Are there any ethical implications
resulting from the study and its results? Explain. Be sure to cite all
sources and follow the APA format.

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