Juvenile Law Commons^™

Juvenile Justice & Diminished Criminal Culpability, Mitchell F. Crusto

University of Miami Law Review

When regulating the bad, albeit illegal, choices made by minors, the law is conflicted. On the one hand, we have a clear national policy to ensure the safety of and to promote the positive development of our young people, yet we simultaneously criminalize minors who make bad choices. This conundrum raises a quintessential jurisprudential flaw in our legal system: We lack a unifying, overarching principle that guides the law’s relationship with minors. In a companion piece, I pose and explore such a unifying principle, which I coin as the “best interest of the minor” standard (“BIMS”). Consequently, this Article applies …

Capital Punishment Of Young Adults In Light Of Evolving Standards Of Science And Decency: Why Ohio Should Raise The Minimum Age For Death Penalty Eligibility To Twenty-Five (25), Talia Stewart

Cleveland State Law Review

Up until the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling in Roper v. Simmons, juveniles could constitutionally be executed for qualifying criminal offenses. The Roper Court raised the minimum age for execution to eighteen, citing both a national consensus against executing minors, as well as recent research (at the time) showing that juveniles are more vulnerable to negative influences and outside pressures. Since Roper, the Supreme Court has remained silent regarding the requisite minimum age for execution and has left the decision up to individual states. While a slim majority of states have now abolished the death penalty in its entirety, …

More Than The Vote: 16-Year-Old Voting And The Risks Of Legal Adulthood, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Advocates of 16-year-old voting have not grappled with two significant risks to adolescents of their agenda. First, a right to vote entails a corresponding accessibility to campaigns. Campaign speech is highly protected, and 16-year-old voting invites more unfettered access to minors by commercial, government, and political interests than current law tolerates. Opening 16-year-olds to campaign access undermines a considered legal system of managing the potential exploitation of adolescents, which sometimes includes direct regulation of entities and also gives parents authority in both law and culture to prohibit, manage, or supervise contacts with every kind of person interested in communicating with …

A Child Litigant's Right To Counsel, Kevin Lapp

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

As the Supreme Court put it a half century ago, the right tocounsel for juveniles reflects “society’s special concern for children” and “is of the essence of justice.” In a variety of legal proceedings, from delinquency matters to child welfare proceedings to judicial bypass hearings, the law requires the appointment of counsel to child litigants. While coherent in the whole, the law regarding counsel for child litigants is a patchwork of state and federal constitutional rulings by courts and statutory grants. Legal scholarship about a child litigant’s right to counsel is similarly fragmented. Predominantly, legal scholars have examined arguments for …

Parameters Of Child Protective Services In The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Minors, Taliah Ahdut

Seattle University Law Review

The purpose of this Note is to critique the current paradigm in place for resolving the sex trafficking of youth in Washington and compare it to the current model utilized in Minnesota. The Minnesota model should be used to provide a framework for Washington to revise its current model because Washington’s current model allows for sexually exploited youth to be funneled in and out of the criminal justice system, limiting the chances for trafficked victims to reach out to members of the community for assistance. These changes could ultimately increase the opportunities for trafficked youth and position them in the …

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, …

How Should Justice Policy Treat Young Offenders?, Owen D. Jones, B. J. Casey, Richard J. Bonnie, Et Al .

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

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, …

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, …

Minors Under The Age Of Seven; Incapable Of Primary Negligence Or Intentional Torts; Conclusive Presumption; Deluca V. Bowden, Robert Austin Cross

Akron Law Review

The only question considered by the supreme court was "whether a child under the age of seven is liable for primary negligence or for an intentional tort." The court noted the general incapacity of a child of this age to act with reason and foresight, and further expressed its own reluctance to attach blame to a child "in any sense comparable to the blame attachable to an adult." For these reasons it held that such a child shall be conclusively presumed incapable of both primary negligence and intentional tort.

In so holding, Ohio joins a distinct minority of states which …

Sex Slavery In The Lone Star State: Does The Texas Human Trafficking Legislation Of 2011 Protect Minors?, Cheryl Nelson Butler

Akron Law Review

This Article argues that, while Texas has made great strides in its movement to combat child trafficking, there are three major areas in which further reform is needed. First, Texas should provide stronger protections for not only minors trafficked for sex, but also those trafficked for labor. Second, Texas law must shift its emphasis from prosecution of traffickers to a more balanced approach that also prioritizes the protection of minors and the prevention of future trafficking crimes against them. Third, Texas should adopt safe harbor provisions that reflect a child welfare response toward prostituted minors

Principles Of Contract Law Applied To Entertainment And Sports Contracts: A Model For Balancing The Rights Of The Industry With Protecting The Interests Of Minors, John H. Shannon, Richard J. Hunter Jr.

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

This Article discusses the context of common law and statutory materials dealing with minors who participate in the entertainment and sports fields. The Article describes the changes undertaken as a result of several notorious cases involving prominent child actors, and how the California legislature dealt with issues ranging from set asides of income, approval of contracts by a competent court of jurisdiction, recognition of the legitimate interests of all parties to the contract, to principles under which a minor would be precluded from disaffirming a contract. The Article then applies and extends the principles developed in entertainment contracts to minors …

A Joyful Heart Is Good Medicine: Sexuality Conversion Bans In The Courts, Wyatt Fore

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Led by California and New Jersey, states have begun to ban Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) for minors. States have targeted SOCE, also called ‘gay conversion therapy,’ by regulating state licensure requirements for mental health professionals. Conservative legal groups have challenged these bans in federal court, alleging a variety of constitutional violations sounding in the First and Fourteenth Amendments. More specifically, these legal groups propose theories claiming that the bans infringe upon individuals’ freedom of speech, free exercise, and parental rights. In this Note, I survey the history of these bans, as well as court decisions that have rejected constitutional …

Handbook On Juvenile Law In Zambia, Center For Law And Justice (Zambia), Cornell Law School. Avon Global Center For Women And Justice, Cornell Law School. International Human Rights Clinic

Avon Global Center for Women and Justice and Dorothea S. Clarke Program in Feminist Jurisprudence

Juveniles who come into contact with the law are a particularly vulnerable group. They may be victims of abuse, in moral danger and in need of care, or unaware of their rights when they are accused of committing a crime. Zambia’s domestic laws recognize this vulnerability of juveniles and grant them special legal protections. One ongoing challenge for juvenile protection is the lack of a compendium on Zambian juvenile law.

To improve access to information on Zambian juvenile law, the Center for Law and Justice and Cornell Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic have co-authored this juvenile law handbook. The …

Adolescent Medical Decision Making And The Law Of The Horse, Amanda C. Pustilnik, Leslie Meltzer Henry

Amanda C Pustilnik

Legal and ethical regimes relating to adolescent medical decision making resemble what Judge Frank H. Easterbrook derisively called “the Law of the Horse”: Many laws deal with horses, he wrote, but there is no such field as “horse law.” Similarly, even though the United States has juvenile and family courts, as well as pediatric and adolescent medical departments, there is not a distinct field of “adolescent medical decision-making law” or ethics; there are just many disparate policies that implicate or impinge upon decisions made by adolescents. These include state laws ranging from those that permit minors to seek treatment for …

Can I See Some Id? Banning Access To Cosmetic Breast Implant Surgery For Minors Under Eighteen , Katherine Cohen Cooper

Journal of Law and Health

In many situations it is perfectly reasonable, and in fact preferable, to allow parents to consent to medical interventions on the behalf of their minor children. Parents enjoy a constitutional liberty interest in directing the upbringing of their children; it is presumed that parents will act in the best interests of their children when they substitute their experiences and judgment for a child’s in making important life decisions.8 This article highlights, however, that when it comes to providing consent for their children to undergo medically unnecessary breast implant surgery, the rationales underlying the presumption of deference to parents and medical …

What Process Is Due?: Unaccompanied Minors' Rights To Deportation Hearings, Irene Scharf, Christine Hess

Irene Scharf

Thousands of foreign-born children enter the United States every year. Many, particularly those crossing at the Mexican border, arrive without legal immigration status and unaccompanied by adults. Once here, these children have certain rights under the Constitution and the immigration laws of this country. Their primary right is to a deportation hearing. Under the current procedures used by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), however, these children are encouraged to waive that right and "elect" voluntary departure. The voluntary departure process requires that they admit to having entered the country illegally, choose the country to which they will return, and leave …

Testifying Minors: Pre-Trial Strategies To Reduce Anxiety In Child Witnesses, Dawn Hathaway Thoman

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Stopping Steubenville: Reducing Cases Of Adolescent Sexual Assault Involving Alcohol, Alexandra Schiffrin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

While the Steubenville Rape Case garnered much attention for the role that social media played in initiating the prosecution and inciting national outrage, the underlying legal issue was the victim’s incapacity to consent because of self-induced intoxication. The case surrounded the August 12, 2012 sexual assault of an intoxicated sixteen-year-old girl by two high school football players, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, after a party in Steubenville, Ohio. Following the prominent coverage of the incident across social media channels and in the news, Mays and Richmond—who were charged with raping the sixteen-year-old girl—were often portrayed as the real victims; observers …

Cyberinfants , Cheryl B. Preston

Pepperdine Law Review

Teens have emerged as a significant market segment, especially with respect to online goods and services. This increased market presence is likely to foreground the contract infancy doctrine, which permits a person under age eighteen to void a contract with a few exceptions. This article provides solid foundations for a discussion of where the doctrine fits in the face of a rising youth market and the digital revolution. Part II covers the general parameters of the infancy doctrine and dispels the notion that the doctrine will not be applicable to online services. This part critiques the one case that has …

Finding Safe Harbor: Protection, Prosecution, And State Strategies To Address Prostituted Minors, Darren Geist

Legislation and Policy Brief

The common policy of treating sexually exploited minors as criminals represents a fundamental failing of the justice system. Prostituted minors should not be treated as delinquents requiring discipline but rather as severely traumatized and abused victims requiring specialized services and counseling. Yet, in most states, prostituted minors are re-traumatized through arrest, prosecution, and detention instead of receiving specialized services. Besides being unjust, this policy is counter-productive. Arresting, prosecuting, and detaining minors hinders law enforcement efforts to go after the real criminals – the pimps and the johns, and misses an important opportunity to rescue minors from a system of commercial …

The Paradox Of Statutory Rape, Russell L. Christopher, Kathryn H. Christopher

Indiana Law Journal

What once protected only virginal girls under the age of ten now also protects sexually aggressive males under the age of eighteen. While thirteenth-century statutory rape law had little reason to address the unthinkable possibility of chaste nine-year-old girls raping adult men, twenty-first-century statutory rape law has failed to address the modern reality of distinctly unchaste seventeen-year-old males raping adult women. Despite dramatically expanding statutory rape’s protected class, the minimalist thirteenth-century conception of the offense remains largely unchanged—intercourse with a juvenile. Overlooked is the new effect of this centuries-old offense—a sexually aggressive seventeen-year-old raping an adult now exposes the adult …

Of Burning Houses And Roasting Pigs: Why Butler V. Michigan Remains A Key Free Speech Victory More Than A Half-Century Later, Clay Calvert

Federal Communications Law Journal

More than fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its unanimous decision in Butler v. Michigan, the case remains a pivotal-if unheralded and perhaps underappreciated-victory for freedom of speech. This Article analyzes the Butler principle and demonstrates how courts repeatedly apply it across different media platforms and in a myriad of factually distinct contexts, ranging from prohibitions on the sale of sex toys to bans on beer bottles with offensive labels. The Article initially provides an in-depth look at Butler, drawing on literary scholarship, historical newspaper articles from the time of the case, and other sources. It then illustrates …

Adolescent Medical Decision Making And The Law Of The Horse, Amanda C. Pustilnik, Leslie Meltzer Henry

Faculty Scholarship

Legal and ethical regimes relating to adolescent medical decision making resemble what Judge Frank H. Easterbrook derisively called “the Law of the Horse”: Many laws deal with horses, he wrote, but there is no such field as “horse law.” Similarly, even though the United States has juvenile and family courts, as well as pediatric and adolescent medical departments, there is not a distinct field of “adolescent medical decision-making law” or ethics; there are just many disparate policies that implicate or impinge upon decisions made by adolescents. These include state laws ranging from those that permit minors to seek treatment for …

Medical Decision Making By And On Behalf Of Adolescents: Reconsidering First Principles, B. Jessie Hill

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Minor's Personal Injury Actions And Settlements In North Carolina, John M. Kirby

Campbell Law Review

This Article addresses the issues that are peculiar to claims of minors in North Carolina. Persons who are the age of majority prosecute and settle claims that raise numerous substantive and procedural issues. These issues can be compounded, however, when the claimant is a minor. The distinct issues that arise with a minor’s claim include: that a minor is often held to a different standard of conduct; that other persons are held to a higher or different standard of conduct toward a minor; that other persons may have a duty to protect the minor; that courts generally protect the interests …

Providing Attorneys For Children In Dependency And Termination Of Parental Rights Proceedings In Florida: The Issue Updated, Michael J. Dale

Faculty Scholarship

Florida's system for providing protection and safety to children in the State's child welfare system has changed over the past decade. Regretfully, the changes do not appear to have had a significant impact in two areas: increasing the safety and protection of children in the system' and providing children with independent attorneys to advocate on their behalf. Investigations, lawsuits, grand juries, amendments to court rules, and newspaper articles continue to demonstrate the myriad failures in the Florida system. Two notorious examples hi-lite the shortcomings: the cases of the foster child, Rilya Wilson, who disappeared in 2001, and Gabriel Myers, who …

The Disregarding Of The Rehabilitative Spirit Of Juvenile Codes: Addressing Resentencing Hearings In Blended Sentencing Schemes, Grace Shear

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Do You Swear To Tell The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth Against Your Child?, Hillary B. Farber

Faculty Publications

Currently in the United States there is no federally recognized parent-child privilege. The U.S. Supreme Court has never granted certiorari in a case involving the recognition of a parent-child privilege. For many, it is a revelation to learn that the government can compel testimony about communications and observations between parents and their children. Scholars have written about the social policy implications caused by the lack of parent–child privilege. In spite of these thoughtful policy-based arguments, neither Congress nor forty-six state legislatures have responded by recognizing even a limited form of a parent-child privilege. This Article singles out one specific context …

Sexting And Teenagers: Omg R U Going 2 Jail???, Catherine Arcabascio

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Defending Juveniles Facing Life Without Parole In Michigan, Kimberly A. Thomas

Articles

In Graham v. Florida, the United State Supreme Court held that life without parole could not be imposed on a juvenile offender for a non-homicide crime. This article discusses the challenges, under the Eighth Amendment and the Michigan Constitution, to the sentence of life without parole imposed on someone 17 years old or less.