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“I Saw Guns And Sharp Swords In The Hands Of Young Children”: Why Mental Health Courts For Juveniles With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Fetal Alcohol Spectrum/Disorder Are Needed, Michael Perlin, Heather Cucolo, Deborah Dorfman Apr 2024

“I Saw Guns And Sharp Swords In The Hands Of Young Children”: Why Mental Health Courts For Juveniles With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Fetal Alcohol Spectrum/Disorder Are Needed, Michael Perlin, Heather Cucolo, Deborah Dorfman

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In this Article, we offer—we believe for the first time in the scholarly literature—a potentially (at least partially) ameliorative solution to the problems faced by persons with autism (ASD) and fetal alcohol disorder (FASD) in the criminal justice system: the creation of (separate sets of) problem-solving juvenile mental health courts specifically to deal with cases of juveniles in the criminal justice system with ASD, and with FASD. There is currently at least one juvenile mental health court that explicitly accepts juveniles with autism, but there are, to the best of our knowledge, no courts set up specifically for these two …


Problem-Solving Courts And The Outcome Oversight Gap, Erin R. Collins Mar 2024

Problem-Solving Courts And The Outcome Oversight Gap, Erin R. Collins

UMKC Law Review

The creation of a specialized, “problem-solving” court is a ubiquitous response to the issues that plague our criminal legal system. The courts promise to address the factors believed to lead to repeated interactions with the system, such as addiction or mental illness, thereby reducing recidivism and saving money. And they do so effectively – at least according to their many proponents, who celebrate them as an example of a successful “evidence-based,” data-driven reform. But the actual data on their efficacy is underwhelming, inconclusive, or altogether lacking. So why do they persist?

This Article seeks to answer that question by scrutinizing …