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Toward A Just System For Juveniles, Karl A. Racine, Elizabeth Wilkins

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Each year as a nation we prosecute over 800,000 children-nearly three percent of the juvenile population2 and detain over 200,000 of them.3 That is, we saddle almost three percent of our youth with the experience of being a defendant in court, with the label of delinquency. And we separate over a quarter of those youth from family and community for some period of time. The overwhelming majority of these children have experienced life-altering trauma in their young lives, and these experiences with the juvenile justice system can exacerbate that trauma.4 Yet,while we are affecting our young people on this massive …