Emerging Adults in Criminal Mitigation: Where New York's Age Lines Stop and Development Does Not

Stephan M. Carlson, MD, MBA, FAPA · Juvenile and Family Forensics

Brain maturation does not stop at a birthday, but New York's categorical age relief does. The hardest emerging-adult cases are the nineteen- to twenty-five-year-olds who have aged out of every statutory presumption, whose mitigation then rises or falls on individualized proof. The line New York actually draws New York's one categorical age accommodation in adult criminal court is youthful offender treatment. The statute defines a "youth" as a person charged with a crime committed when he was at least sixteen and less than nineteen, and makes every such youth eligible unless a listed disqualifier applies (CPL 720.10[1]–[2]). A youthful offender finding replaces the conviction with an adjudica

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