Law Commons^™

Cost-Effective Juvenile Justice Reform: Lessons From The Just Beginning “Baby Elmo” Teen Parenting Program, Shani M. King, Rachel Barr, Jennifer Woolard

Shani M. King

This Article reviews the literature describing the rise of mass incarceration and its effects on individuals, families, and communities. The Article then describes the Just Beginning “Baby Elmo” Program, a cost-effective, sustainable parental instruction and child visitation intervention created for use with incarcerated teen parents. This intervention is designed to increase the quality of interaction between parent and child, increasing the likelihood that the teen father and child will form a positive relationship and maintain that relationship after release from detention—thereby increasing the child’s resilience and reducing the risk of recidivism for the teen father. The “Baby Elmo” Program is …

Youth Matters: Miller V. Alabama And The Future Of Juvenile Sentencing, John F. Stinneford

John F. Stinneford

In the Supreme Court's latest Eighth Amendment decision, Miller v. Alabama, the Court held that statutes authorizing mandatory sentences of life in prison with no possibility of parole are unconstitutional as applied to offenders who were under eighteen when they committed their crimes. This short essay examines several themes presented in Miller, including the constitutional significance of youth and science, the legitimacy of mandatory life sentences and juvenile transfer statutes, and the conflict between “evolving standards of decency” and the Supreme Court’s “independent judgment.” This essay also introduces important articles by Richard Frase, Carol Steiker and Jordan Steiker, Franklin Zimring …

Juvenile Offenders: Life Without Parole (Lwop), Term Of Years And A Reasonable Opportunity For Release, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

A juvenile offender (a person who committed an offense before the age of 18 years) can be tried as an adult and will be subject to adult punishments, with some restrictions. Juveniles cannot be executed and they cannot be mandatorily confined to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Justice Kagen of the United States Supreme Court stated for a majority of the Court in Miller v. Alabama, that a mandatory life sentence for a juvenile violates the 8th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. In other words, life without hope should be unconstitutional for juveniles.

Prosecutors have …

Discipline And The Pipeline To The 'Pen': A Proposal For Change, Sharlette A. Kellum-Gilbert Ph.D.

Dr. Sharlette A. Kellum-Gilbert

Consciously or subconsciously, educators are funneling our children from schools to prisons. Moreover, they’re uploading African American and Hispanic children into the system at a number that is measurably out of proportion to their White counterparts. Ticketing students for minor behavior infractions and labeling them as “alternative” often causes them to act out alternatively. Becker (1963) believes that those who create rules and labels for others that do not follow those rules are actually responsible for creating deviance. Ultimately, when students are hastily ticketed and charged when they act out, it’s much easier for them to drop out of school …

Fitness For Trial Among Juvenile Offenders In Queensland, Jodie O'Leary, Suzie O'Toole, Bruce Watt, Kathleen Reynolds, Rachael Hinton

Jodie O'Leary

This project focuses on current law and practice in Queensland to examine whether enough is being done to ensure that juveniles who may lack fitness are identified, assessed and diverted (where appropriate) from the criminal justice system.

Kidnapping Incorporated: The Unregulated Youth-Transportation Industry And The Potential For Abuse, Ira P. Robbins

Ira P. Robbins

The National Academy Of Sciences And Juvenile Justice, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

In March of 1863, during the height of the Civil War in the United States, President Abraham Lincoln founded the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). This spring, the NAS celebrated its 150th anniversary. President Barack Obama gave a speech praising the history of the organization and noting its many achievements. The NAS brings together the finest scientific minds to assist the government on scientific matters from the military, to the space program, to education, to medicine, to global warming, to industrial science, to engineering, to cybersecurity.

The National Academy of Sciences also assists the Federal Judicial Center and the Administrative …

Know The Law, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

A series of 11 "Know the Law" legal briefs posted to the National Girls Institute (OJJDP/National Council on Crime and Delinquency) web site.

Making Detention Reform Work For Girls: A Guide To Juvenile Detention Reform, Francine Sherman, Richard Mendel, Angela Irvine

Francine T. Sherman

Throughout the nation, court-involved girls frequently pose minimal risk to public safety but suffer with significant social service needs. Data on detention utilization show that girls are being disproportionately detained for misdemeanors, status offenses and technical violations of probation and parole. In short, many girls enter detention for the wrong reasons and many remain in detention for extended periods harmful to them and contrary to best practice.

This practice guide responds to a call from both mature and new sites from within the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) network, which continue to find that effectively serving and supervising girls is …

Did Changes In Juvenile Sanctions Reduce Juvenile Crime Rates? A Natural Experiment, Franklin Zimring, Stephen Rushin

Franklin E. Zimring

This essay examines whether state statutory changes to the juvenile justice system during the 1990s contributed to the subsequent decline in juvenile homicide rates. Between 1985 and 1993, juvenile crime rates soared in the United States. Many prominent scholars and politicians argued that this uptick in youth crime was just the beginning of a forthcoming wave of juvenile violence. In response, between 1992 and 1997, forty-seven states enacted statutory changes that made the juvenile justice system more punitive. Between 1993 and 2010, juvenile crime declined markedly, leading some to conclude that that the punitive statutory changes caused the decline in …

Justice For Girls: Are We Making Progress?, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

Over the course of more than a century, structural gender bias has been a remarkably durable feature of United States juvenile justice systems. Consequently, as these systems have developed over the years, reducing gender bias and addressing girls in helpful, rather than harmful, ways has required specific and concerted efforts on the part of federal and state governments. Currently, there are a number of positive trends in juvenile justice, including policy and practice that is increasingly developmentally centered and data-driven. The question for those focused on girls in the juvenile justice system is how to ensure that girls are the …

Foreword, Francine T. Sherman, William Talley Jr

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Finding A Place For Children: The Impact Of Cameroon’S Criminal Procedure Code On Children In Conflict With The Law,, Joshua Dankoff

Joshua Dankoff

In the face of a number of complex challenges—including lack of resources, an often oppressive neoliberal international economic system, and low salaries—the Cameroonian government has taken important steps over the last 20 years to improve its justice sector generally, and specifically in relation to children in conflict with the law. Having ratified most of the leading international and regional legal instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Cameroonian government has shown an interest in bringing its police, adjudicatory, and prison justice sectors into line with international norms and practice. As an example of a mixed jurisdiction …

The System Response To The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Girls, Francine Sherman, Lisa Grace

Francine T. Sherman

This chapter, which is written from the perspectives of law, public health, and social work, examines the system’s response to the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), focusing on girls. It describes the issue and then examine the range of international, federal, state, and local laws and policies, aimed at aiding and enhancing prosecution of perpetrators of CSEC (i.e., pimps, johns), and at providing protection and services to its victims. The chapter argues that, as state and local authorities implement practice and policy for this population, the two central goals—law enforcement and victim protection—may conflict, creating practices that serve neither …

Children's Rights And Relationships: A Legal Framework, Francine Sherman, Hon. Jay Blitzman

Francine T. Sherman

This chapter provides an overview of United States children’s law, framed both in terms of autonomy-based and needs-based rights, and by the legal dynamic among child, parent, and state. The chapter highlights the law of juvenile justice and child welfare systems, and also examines law relevant to education and health care, two central institutions for children. The chapter proceeds ecologically, acknowledging that children’s lives, including their legal lives, are related to their families, communities, and the social institutions surrounding them. As such the chapter provides a readable introduction to children’s relationship with the law for both lawyers and non-lawyers.

The Role Of Gender In Youth Systems: Grace's Story, Francine Sherman, Jessica Greenstone

Francine T. Sherman

This chapter —written from a legal and developmental perspective —describes the experiences of ‘‘Grace,’’ a teenage girl involved with multiple public systems, including juvenile justice. Through detailed analysis of primary interview data with Grace and others responsible for her care and supervision, and of court case material. The chapter sheds light on how Grace’s actions were interpreted and the responses they evoked. The case study includes recommendations for implementing gender-responsive principles across these systems.

Juvenile Justice: Advancing Research, Policy, And Practice, Francine Sherman, Francine Jacobs

Francine T. Sherman

This accessible, edited volume reflects the multiplisciplinary, multisectoral nature of juvenile justice, including chapters by leaders in the fields of child development, law, public health, education, advocacy, and public administration. The voices of scholars, parents, administrators, and youth are woven into its fabric; it offers several complementary theoretical lenses through which to understand the behavior of youth involved with the juvenile justice system, and provides a range of promising and proven practical approaches to juvenile justice policy, programming, and evaluation.

The book is organized ecologically into four sections: Framing the Issues, Understanding Individual Youth, Understanding Youth in Context, and Working …

Gender Matters In Juvenile Justice, Francine Sherman, Meda Chesney-Lind

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Reframing The Response: Girls In The Juvenile Justice System And Domestic Violence, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

This article provides an overview of the role gender plays in juvenile justice processing. It reviews national data on girls’ arrest patterns and links those patterns to girls’ underlying needs and trauma histories. The article then focuses on the increase in arrests of girls for domestic assaults and describes the experience of Washoe County, Nevada, where girls were detained disproportionately for domestic battery as a result of a mandatory detention law. The article goes on to describe Nevada’s successful effort to amend that law to increase discretion and mandate family services and the resulting improvements in services to girls experiencing …

Access To Community Healthcare For Youth In The Juvenile Justice System: Initial Lessons From The Massachusetts Health Passport Project, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

From 2004-2010, the author directed the Massachusetts Health Passport Project (MHPP), aimed at facilitating continuous access to healthcare for girls and boys in the juvenile justice system in two Massachusetts counties. This article describes the health challenges facing youth, and particularly girls in the juvenile justice system including the significant barriers to health care access that these youth face. It goes on to describe the Massachusetts Health Passport Project, designed to: 1. Improve access to healthcare; 2) Change relevant systems; 3) Improve youth’s social supports; and 4) Improve youth’s health status. The article draws on an evaluation of MHPP to …

Promoting Justice For Girls In An Unjust System, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Taking On The Challenge: Phase I Of The Hyams Foundation Girls' Initiative, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

This report describes Phase I of The Hyams Foundation’s funding initiative for eight programs providing direct services to girls in Boston and Chelsea, Massachusetts. Although the programs varied in their sophistication and experience with gender-responsive approaches, in each case the programs served girls who were court involved and worked with the state social services or juvenile justice systems. The monograph describes the work of the initiative’s Learning Community, participation in which was a requirement of funding, and findings from the Learning Community’s participatory action research. Notably, the report describes nine lessons learned from the funding initiative, which are useful for …

Detention Reform And Girls: Challenges And Solutions: Jdai Pathways To Juvenile Detention Reform #13, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

This report is part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) Pathways to Detention Reform Series. It describes the urgent need for juvenile justice systems to focus on their female populations and presents an overview of the pathways girls take into detention in the United States with a focus on justice system policies and practices that lead to unnecessary and disproportionate detention of girls. It then identifies promising policies, practices, and gender-responsive approaches drawn from JDAI sites, which can reduce girls’ detention and improve their outcomes. The report concludes with systemic strategies to eliminate gender bias …

Girls In The Juvenile Justice System: Perspectives On Services And Conditions Of Confinement, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

This report details the results of original survey and interview research on perceptions of Judges, Attorneys and girls in the juvenile justice system on conditions of confinement for girls in detention and post-disposition confinement.

When Individual Differences Demand Equal Treatment: An Equal Rights Approach To The Special Needs Of Girls In The Juvenile Justice System, Francine Sherman, Marsha L. Levick

Francine T. Sherman

This article argues that disparities girls face in the juvenile justice system can be remedied by employing equal rights analysis including the federal Equal Protection Clause, state Equal Rights Amendments, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Unlike the adult prison context, in which equal protection and Title IX have had limited success, the juvenile justice system is premised on individualized rehabilitative justice. Where differences between male and female offenders have undermined equal rights challenges in the adult arena, in the juvenile justice system differences among individual youth are acknowledged, and dispositions are driven by those individual needs. …

Amici Curiae Urge The U.S. Supreme Court To Consider International Human Rights Law In Juvenile Death Penalty Case, Connie De La Vega

Connie de la Vega

This article is an adaptation of an amici curiae brief filed in support of the petition for writ of certiorari in Beazley v. Johnson, 242 F.3d 248 (5th Cir. 2001), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 945 (2001), application of stay of execution denied, 533 U.S. 969 (2001). It asserts that the prohibition against the execution of persons who were under eighteen years of age at the commission of the crime is not only customary international law, it has attained the status of a jus cogens peremptory norm of international law which must be taken into account by the court. It also …

Effective Advocacy Strategies For Girls: Promoting Justice In An Unjust System, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Contributor, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Prostitution And Teenage Girls, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.

Probation And The Delinquent Girl, Francine Sherman

Francine T. Sherman

No abstract provided.