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Prenatal Drug Exposure: The Impetus For Overreaction By The Legal Community Or A Serious Problem Needing A Serious Solution, Janet W. Steverson
Prenatal Drug Exposure: The Impetus For Overreaction By The Legal Community Or A Serious Problem Needing A Serious Solution, Janet W. Steverson
Janet W. Steverson
In 1994 this author argued for the adoption of a legislative scheme that addressed the problems of children exposed prenatally to drugs and alcohol. Under that scheme fetal abuse became a crime. However, the sentence for the crime was probation with drug treatment and no-pregnancy conditions, rather than incarceration. Although no state has enacted the proposed legislative scheme in total, a number of states have enacted bits and pieces of the scheme. No state has, however, made fetal abuse a crime.
In addition to the legislation that has been enacted since 1994, a number of other changes have occurred that …