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Full-Text Articles in Law
Closing The Widening Net: The Rights Of Juveniles At Intake, Tamar R. Birckhead
Closing The Widening Net: The Rights Of Juveniles At Intake, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
Should juveniles have more, fewer, the same or different procedural rights than are accorded to adults? This question, posed by Professor Arnold Loewy for a panel at the 2013 Texas Tech Law Review Symposium on Juveniles and Criminal Law, requires us to examine our goals for the juvenile court system. My primary goal, having practiced in both adult criminal and juvenile delinquency forums for over twenty years, is to ensure that the reach of juvenile court is no wider than necessary, as research indicates that when children are processed through the juvenile court system and adjudicated delinquent, the impact is …
Delinquent By Reason Of Poverty, Tamar R. Birckhead
Delinquent By Reason Of Poverty, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
This Article, written for the 12th Annual Access to Equal Justice Colloquium, explores the disproportionate representation of low-income children in the United States juvenile justice system. It examines the structural and institutional causes of this development, beginning with the most common points of entry into delinquency court—the child welfare system, public schools, retail stores, and neighborhood police presence. It introduces the concept of needs-based delinquency, a theory that challenges basic presuppositions about the method by which children are adjudicated delinquent. It argues that at each stage of the process—from intake through adjudication to disposition and probation—the court gives as much …
Good Guys, Bad Guys -- And Miranda, Tamar R. Birckhead
Good Guys, Bad Guys -- And Miranda, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
This op-ed argues that we as a society must get beyond our single-minded focus on the Miranda warnings and find a better way to elicit accurate information from suspects while lowering the risk of false confessions.
Juvenile Justice Reform 2.0, Tamar R. Birckhead
Juvenile Justice Reform 2.0, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
Before the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the United States Supreme Court’s exercise of judicial review did not support the notion that constitutional litigation could be an effective instrument of social reform. The Court’s principled rejection of racially segregated public education, however, gave new legitimacy to the concept of judicial review, transforming it from an obstacle into a principal means of achieving social progress. Since then, federal courts have impacted public policy in many areas – from housing, welfare, and transportation to mental health institutions, prisons, and juvenile courts. Yet, there are inherent structural challenges to effecting …
The "Youngest Profession": Consent, Autonomy, And Prostituted Children, Tamar R. Birckhead
The "Youngest Profession": Consent, Autonomy, And Prostituted Children, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
Although precise estimates do not exist, the data suggests that the number of children believed to be at risk for commercial sexual exploitation in the United States is between 200,000 and 300,000 and that the average age of entry is between eleven and fourteen, with some as young as nine. The number of prostituted children who are criminally prosecuted for these acts is equally difficult to estimate. In 2008—the most recent year for which data is available—approximately 1500 youth under age eighteen were reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as having been arrested within United States borders for prostitution …
When Juveniles Face Questioning, Tamar R. Birckhead
When Juveniles Face Questioning, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
This op-ed argues that the age of a suspect should be considered when evaluating whether the questioning was custodial, thereby triggering the right to Miranda warnings.
Culture Clash: The Challenge Of Lawyering Across Difference In Juvenile Court, Tamar R. Birckhead
Culture Clash: The Challenge Of Lawyering Across Difference In Juvenile Court, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
In analyzing the causes of wrongful convictions of youth in juvenile court, the role of the defense attorney can be overlooked and its importance underestimated. Although juvenile defenders are trained to advocate based on their young client‟s expressed interest rather than relying on what they deem to be in the child‟s best interest, this basic tenet is often more challenging to follow than is commonly acknowledged. The norms of effective criminal defense practice—which emphasize rigorous oral and written advocacy with little mention of whether the client has learned a lesson from the experience—stand in direct contrast to the informal culture …
Toward A Theory Of Procedural Justice For Juveniles, Tamar R. Birckhead
Toward A Theory Of Procedural Justice For Juveniles, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
Courts and legislatures have long been reluctant to make use of the data, findings, and recommendations generated by other disciplines when determining questions of legal procedure affecting juveniles, particularly when the research has been produced by social scientists. However, given the United States Supreme Court’s recent invocation of developmental psychology in Roper v. Simmons, which invalidated the juvenile death penalty, there is reason to believe that such resistance is waning. In 2005 the Simmons Court found, inter alia, that based on research on adolescent development, juveniles are not as culpable as adults and, therefore, cannot be classified among the “worst …
The Right Thing For Juveniles, Tamar R. Birckhead
The Right Thing For Juveniles, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
This op-ed argues that the upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction in North Carolina should be raised from 16 to 18.