Life imprisonment of children, comparative criminal law analysis

Life imprisonment is a custodial sentence that allows the state to keep the person in its custody for the entire life. The punishment of life imprisonment is of particular importance, as it is often the most severe criminal sanction in countries where the death penalty was abolished. From both a human rights and prison management perspective, life imprisonment raises concerns.

In many legal systems there is an absolute prohibition on all life sentences for children, while 73 States around the world allowed people to be sentenced to life imprisonment for offences committed while under the age of eighteen.

This article focuses on children younger than eighteen years convicted of crimes (as if the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines the notion of a child) and presents a comparative criminal law analysis of the regulation and enforcement of life imprisonment on children around the world. It also highlights the way that international, regional and national human rights mechanisms have addressed life imprisonment of children over the years.  

One of the main conclusions of this analysis is that life imprisonment, of any type, does not have a place in juvenile justice. Imposing such a punishment on a child contradicts our modern understanding that children have enormous potential for growth and maturity as they move from youth to adulthood, and the widely held belief in the possibility of a child's rehabilitation and redemption.