Miller's Children: Why Giving Teenage Killers a Second Chance Matters for All of Us

215 Pages·2018·1.382 MB·English

by  James Garbarino

Miller’s Children
why giving teenage killers
a second chance
matters for all of us
James Garbarino
university of california press
Miller’s Children
The publisher and the University of California Press
Foundation gratefully acknowledge the generous support
of the Anne G. Lipow Endowment Fund
in Social Justice and Human Rights.
Miller’s Children
why giving teenage killers
a second chance
matters for all of us
James Garbarino
university of california press
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university
presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing
scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its
activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic
contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit
www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2018 by James Garbarino
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Garbarino, James, author.
Title: Miller’s children : why giving teenage killers a second chance matters
for all of us / James Garbarino.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: lccn 2017030347 (print) | lccn 2017036539 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520968363 (epub) | isbn 9780520295674 (cloth : alk. paper) |
isbn 9780520295681 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: lcsh: Juvenile delinquents—United States. | Juvenile homicide—
United States—Psychological aspects. | Correctional psychology. |
Criminals—Rehabilitation. | Juvenile corrections.
Classifi cation: lcc hv9104 (ebook) | lcc hv9104 .g35 2018 (print) |
ddc 365/.6019—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017030347
Manufactured in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the men and women who have made the journey
of rehabilitation and transformation

contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
1 Adolescence Squared: Why Are Kids Who Kill Diff erent? 1
•
2 Who Are Th ey? 30
•
3 Th e Moral Calculus: A Life for a Life? 52
•
4 Running Away from the Monster 77
•
5 Are Th ere Exceptions? 111
•
6 Translating Hope into Law and Practice 143
•
References 175
Index 183

acknowledgments
My thanks go out to all the men (and a few women) who shared their stories
of rehabilitation, transformation, and redemption in prisons around the
country, most especially the men whose words are included in this book.
Together, they have taught me more about the path from troubled teenage
killer to wise and compassionate man than I could have learned otherwise.
Th ey have walked this path, and they have been generous and gracious in
sharing with me how they did it and what they learned along the way.
I also must express my gratitude to my colleague Kathleen Heide. Her
research and insight have informed and improved my own. Her support and
encouragement in the writing of this book have sustained me and improved
the end result (as it did before in writing my 2015 book Listening to Killers).
Kathleen was joined in reviewing the fi rst draft of the manuscript by Barry
Krisberg and Christopher Slobogin, and I thank all three of them for the
helpful suggestions they made, suggestions that I have incorporated into the
fi nal version of this book.
Many thanks to “my” editor at the University of California Press, Maura
Roessner, whose belief in the project and astute comments and suggestions
have supported me from start to fi nish. And my thanks to Richard Earles for
his excellent copyediting that improved the book’s clarity and focus.
And I thank all my teachers—at East Rockaway High School, where my
intellectual life began; at St. Lawrence University, where it really took hold;
and at Cornell University, where my professional education began. Th anks
also to the academic institutions that have been my professional homes for
more than forty years as a professor—Empire State College; the Boys Town
Center for the Study of Youth Development; Penn State; the Erikson
ix