Juvenile Law Commons^™

A Fresh Start: The Evolving Use Of Juvenile Records In College Admissions, Eve Rips

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Questions about criminal and juvenile records in the college application process are common and frequently fail to account for the unique characteristics of juvenile justice systems. The ways in which colleges and universities ask about juvenile records often encourage applicants to disclose information in spite of statutory protections. These questions fly in the face of the public policy underlying a range of legal safeguards that are intended to help individuals with records from juvenile systems in moving forward and receiving a second chance.

In recent years, a series of legislative and institutional changes have begun to restrict how colleges and …

Beyond "Children Are Different": The Revolution In Juvenile Intake And Sentencing, Joshua Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Scholarship

For more than 120 years, juvenile justice law has not substantively defined the core questions in most delinquency cases — when should the state prosecute children rather than divert them from the court system (the intake decision), and what should the state do with children once they are convicted (the sentencing decision)? Instead, the law has granted certain legal actors wide discretion over these decisions, namely prosecutors at intake and judges at sentencing. This Article identifies and analyzes an essential reform trend changing that reality: legislation, enacted in at least eight states in the 2010s, to limit when children can …

The Evolution Of Juvenile Justice From The Book Of Leviticus To Parens Patriae: The Next Step After In Re Gault, Donald E. Mcinnis, Shannon Cullen, Julia Schon

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

Since the arrival of the Pilgrims, American jurisprudence has known that its law-breaking children must be treated differently than adults. How children are treated by the law raises ethical and constitutional issues. This Article questions the current approach, which applies adult due process protections to children who are unable to fully understand their constitutional rights and the consequences of waiving those rights. The authors propose new Miranda warnings and a Bill of Rights for Children to protect children and their constitutional right to due process under the law.

Against The Received Wisdom: Why The Criminal Justice System Should Give Kids A Break, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

Professor Gideon Yaffe’s recent, intricately argued book, The Age of Culpability: Children and the Nature of Criminal Responsibility, argues against the nearly uniform position in both law and scholarship that the criminal justice system should give juveniles a break not because on average they have different capacities relevant to responsibility than adults, but because juveniles have little say about the criminal law, primarily because they do not have a vote. For Professor Yaffe, age has political rather than behavioral significance. The book has many excellent general analyses about responsibility, but all are in aid of the central thesis about …

The Concrete Jungle: Where Dreams Are Made Of . . . And Now Where Children Are Protected, Samantha A. Mumola

Pace Law Review

The tragic and unsettling story of Kalief Browder has notably emerged as a prominent illustration of our criminal justice system’s historical failure to protect our youth. Kalief’s story gained massive media attention with the help of a TIME documentary series featured on Netflix and famous A-listers such as music artist Jay-Z and TV host Rosie O’Donnell. It is hard to ignore the fact that Kalief Browder was cheated by the system; he chose suicide to escape his demons, which developed after undeserved time spent at Riker’s – a place he would have never experienced had he initially been tried as …

Prioritizing The Welfare Of Youth: Design Failure In Juvenile Justice And Building The Restorative Alternative, Michael Friedman

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Model For Rigorously Applying The Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment (Epis) Framework In The Design And Measurement Of A Large Scale Collaborative Multi-Site Study, Jennifer E. Becan, John P. Bartkowski, Danica K. Knight, Tisha R. A. Wiley, Ralph Diclemente, Lori Ducharme, Wayne N. Welsh, Diana Bowser, Kathryn Mccollister, Matthew Hiller, Anne C. Spaulding, Patrick M. Flynn, Andrea Swartzendruber, Megan F. Dickson, Jacqueline Horan Fisher, Gregory A. Aarons

Center on Drug and Alcohol Research Faculty Publications

Background

This paper describes the means by which a United States National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded cooperative, Juvenile Justice-Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS), utilized an established implementation science framework in conducting a multi-site, multi-research center implementation intervention initiative. The initiative aimed to bolster the ability of juvenile justice agencies to address unmet client needs related to substance use while enhancing inter-organizational relationships between juvenile justice and local behavioral health partners.

Methods

The EPIS (Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment) framework was selected and utilized as the guiding model from inception through project completion; including the …

The State Of American Juvenile Justice, Merril Sobie

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article will summarize the major twenty-first century state legislative and case law developments. It will also briefly note the expansion of state and local initiatives limiting the prosecution of youthful offenders, such as diversion and restorative justice programs.

The state of American juvenile justice has improved significantly in the past several years. However, the reforms are best viewed as a work in progress. Much has been accomplished, but much remains to be accomplished. Crucially, after a generation of “tough on kids” measures, we are on the road toward a true “justice” system for children.

Virtual Shackles: Electronic Surveillance And The Adultification Of Juvenile Courts, Chaz Arnett

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

In recent years, there has been a groundswell of attention directed at problems within the American criminal justice system, led in part by Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow, and most recently through the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement. This increased focus on the harms of over-incarceration and net-widening, has had the benefit of introducing to the public other practices utilized in the criminal justice system, such as the widespread use of ankle monitors to track the location of defendants and released offenders. Yet, despite this greater attention, legal scholarship has only recently begun to grapple …

A More Just System Of Juvenile Justice: Creating A New Standard Of Accountability For Juveniles In Illinois, Brooke Troutman

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

For over a century, America’s legal system has made substantial reforms to change its treatment of adolescents. Every day, we see that our legal system treats adolescents differently from their adult counterparts. With regards to driving privileges, voting rights, and the ability to drink, our laws recognize that adults and adolescents are different and therefore require a different set of standards. America extended this treatment to the realm of juvenile justice in 1899, when Cook County, Illinois, created the country’s first juvenile court. Originating in this court was the overarching purpose of America’s juvenile justice system—rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. Though …

My Life In Crime: An Intellectual History Of The Juvenile Court, Barry C. Feld

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pursuing Gault, David S. Tanenhaus, Eric C. Nystrom

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Juvenile Justice Research To Policy And The Case Of Fines, Alex R. Piquero

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Unambiguous Deterrence: Ambiguity Attitudes In The Juvenile Justice System And The Case For A Right To Counsel During Intake Proceedings, Hannah Frank

Vanderbilt Law Review

According to the traditional rational choice theory of criminal behavior, people choose to commit crimes in a rational manner.' They weigh the costs and benefits and make informed decisions to maximize their utility. Under this framework, the state can deter crime through two main avenues: increasing the probability of detection and increasing the punishment if caught, both of which increase the total cost of committing a crime. Recently, however, behavioral insights have begun to cast doubt on traditional rationality assumptions. Lab experiments and empirical studies using real-world data have shown that people exhibit bounded rationality. For example, individuals have limited …

How Should Justice Policy Treat Young Offenders?, B J. Casey, Richard J. Bonnie, Andre Davis, David L. Faigman, Morris B. Hoffman, Owen D. Jones, Read Montague, Stephen J. Morse, Marcus E. Raichle, Jennifer A. Richeson, Elizabeth S. Scott, Laurence Steinberg, Kim A. Taylor-Thompson, Anthony D. Wagner

All Faculty Scholarship

The justice system in the United States has long recognized that juvenile offenders are not the same as adults, and has tried to incorporate those differences into law and policy. But only in recent decades have behavioral scientists and neuroscientists, along with policymakers, looked rigorously at developmental differences, seeking answers to two overarching questions: Are young offenders, purely by virtue of their immaturity, different from older individuals who commit crimes? And, if they are, how should justice policy take this into account?

A growing body of research on adolescent development now confirms that teenagers are indeed inherently different from adults, …

Juvenile Or Adult? Lost In Interpretation: The Split On Interpreting A “Prior Record” Under The Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act, Ashley N. Longcor

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Non-Sexual Predators: The Negative Implications Of Required Registration For Non-Sexual Offenses, Alexandra Vargas

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

The School-To-Prison Pipeline's Legal Architecture: Lessons From The Spring Valley Incident And Its Aftermath, Joshua Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Scholarship

In October 2015, a Black teenager at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina had her cell phone out in her math class. Her teacher told her repeatedly to put it away. Repeatedly she refused. The teacher then called a school administrator, who similarly instructed her to put away her phone. The student continued to refuse. The administrator then called the school resource officer (“SRO”), the uniformed, armed deputy sheriff assigned to the school. The SRO came and informed the student that she had to put away her cell phone. When the student again refused, the officer arrested her …

How Should Justice Policy Treat Young Offenders?: A Knowledge Brief Of The Macarthur Foundation Research Network On Law And Neuroscience, Bj Casey, Richard J. Bonnie, Andre Davis, David L. Faigman, Morris B. Hoffman, Owen D. Jones, Read Montague, Stephen J. Morse, Marcus E. Raichle, Jennifer E. Richeson, Elizabeth S. Scott, Laurence Steinberg, Kim Taylor-Thompson, Anthony Wagner

Faculty Scholarship

The justice system in the United States has long recognized that juvenile offenders are not the same as adults, and has tried to incorporate those differences into law and policy. But only in recent decades have behavioral scientists and neuroscientists, along with policymakers, looked rigorously at developmental differences, seeking answers to two overarching questions: Are young offenders, purely by virtue of their immaturity, different from older individuals who commit crimes? And, if they are, how should justice policy take this into account?

A growing body of research on adolescent development now confirms that teenagers are indeed inherently different from adults, …

The American Bar Association Joint Task Force On Reversing The School-To-Prison Pipeline Preliminary Report, Sarah E. Redfield, Jason P. Nance

Jason P. Nance

In 2014, the American Bar Association (ABA) Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice (COREJ) turned its attention to the continuing failures in the education system where certain groups of students — for example, students of color, with disabilities, or LGBTQ — are disproportionately over- or incorrectly categorized in special education, are disciplined more harshly, including referral to law enforcement for minimal misbehavior, achieve at lower levels, and eventually drop or are pushed out of school, often into juvenile justice facilities and prisons — a pattern now commonly referred to as the School-to-Prison Pipeline. While this problem certainly is not new, …

Over-Disciplining Students, Racial Bias, And The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Jason P. Nance

Jason P. Nance

Over the last three decades, our nation has witnessed a dramatic change regarding how schools discipline children. Empirical evidence during this time period demonstrates that schools increasingly have relied on extreme forms of punishment such as suspensions, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement, and school-based arrests to discipline students for violations of school rules, including for low-level offenses. Many have referred to this disturbing trend of schools directly referring students to law enforcement or creating conditions under which students are more likely to become involved in the justice system—such as suspending or expelling them—as the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Perhaps the most alarming …

High Pain, No Gain: How Juvenile Administrative Fees Harm Low-Income Families In Alameda County, California, Jeffrey Selbin

Jeffrey Selbin

“One Of The Worst:” The School-To-Prison Pipeline In Richmond, Virginia, Cassie Powell

Law Student Publications

Virginia tops the nation in the rate of referrals of students to law enforcement, at three times the national average. Students with disabilities and children of color are far more likely to be referred. Some Richmond area school districts and local government leaders are taking steps to counteract this trend.

The American Bar Association Joint Task Force On Reversing The School-To-Prison Pipeline Preliminary Report, Sarah E. Redfield, Jason P. Nance

UF Law Faculty Publications

In 2014, the American Bar Association (ABA) Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice (COREJ) turned its attention to the continuing failures in the education system where certain groups of students — for example, students of color, with disabilities, or LGBTQ — are disproportionately over- or incorrectly categorized in special education, are disciplined more harshly, including referral to law enforcement for minimal misbehavior, achieve at lower levels, and eventually drop or are pushed out of school, often into juvenile justice facilities and prisons — a pattern now commonly referred to as the School-to-Prison Pipeline. While this problem certainly is not new, …

Making Juvenile Justice More Humane And Effective, Julie Ellen Mcconnell

Law Faculty Publications

Long commutes, high costs and too much time away from family are among the most common frustration for workers in Virginia. But while those annoyances may be tolerable when it comes to our daily commutes, they have become an unfortunate feature of Virginia’s youth justice system, which confines hundreds of youth in large institutions far from their homes.

When young people have regular visits with their family and other members of the community, they have a much higher chance of being rehabilitated and successfully returning to those communities. Currently, many incarcerated youth in Virginia are held far from their families, …

Over-Disciplining Students, Racial Bias, And The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Jason P. Nance

UF Law Faculty Publications

Over the last three decades, our nation has witnessed a dramatic change regarding how schools discipline children. Empirical evidence during this time period demonstrates that schools increasingly have relied on extreme forms of punishment such as suspensions, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement, and school-based arrests to discipline students for violations of school rules, including for low-level offenses. Many have referred to this disturbing trend of schools directly referring students to law enforcement or creating conditions under which students are more likely to become involved in the justice system—such as suspending or expelling them—as the “school-to-prison pipeline.” Perhaps the most alarming …

Untangling The Web: Juvenile Justice In Indian Country, Addie C. Rolnick

Scholarly Works

The juvenile justice system in Indian country is broken. Native youth are vulnerable and traumatized. They become involved in the system at high rates, and they are more likely than other youth to be incarcerated and less likely to receive necessary health, mental-health, and education services. Congressional leaders and the Obama administration have made the needs of Indian country, especially improvement of tribal justice systems, an area of focus in recent years. The release of two major reports—one from a task force convened by the Attorney General to study violence and trauma among Native youth and the other from a …

Locked Up: Fear, Racism, Prison Economics, And The Incarceration Of Native Youth, Addie C. Rolnick

Scholarly Works

Native youth are disproportionately incarcerated, often for relatively minor offenses. One potential solution is to move more Native youth out of federal and state courts and invest in tribal juvenile justice systems. Tribal systems are assumed to be less punitive than nontribal ones, so greater tribal control should mean less incarceration. Little is known, however, about the role of incarceration in tribally run systems. This article examines available information on Native youth in tribal juvenile justice systems from 1998 to 2013. At least sixteen new secure juvenile facilities were built to house youth under tribal court jurisdiction, with federal investment …

We Don’T Always Mean What We Say: Attitudes Toward Statutory Exclusion Of Juvenile Offenders From Juvenile Court Jurisdiction, Tina Zotolli, Tarika Daftary Kapur, Patricia A. Zapf

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In the United States, juvenile offenders are often excluded from the jurisdiction of the juvenile court on the basis of age and crime type alone. Data from national surveys and data from psycholegal research on support for adult sanction of juvenile offenders are often at odds. The ways in which questions are asked and the level of detail provided to respondents and research participants may influence expressed opinions. Respondents may also be more likely to agree with harsh sanctions when they have fewer offender- and case-specific details to consider. Here, we test the hypothesis that attitudes supporting statutory exclusion laws …

Oversight Hearing On Juvenile Justice In Indian Country: Challenges And Promising Strategies, Addie C. Rolnick

Congressional Testimony

In her testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Prof. Rolnick describes her research and recommendations concerning how to improve juvenile justice for American Indian and Alaska Native youth.