Law Commons^™

Privacy Versus Parens Patriae The Role Of Police Records In The Sentencing And Surveillance Of Juveniles, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this article is to examine juvenile record systems maintained by police authorities. A primary thesis is that current procedures governing the creation and dissemination of such records are so severely misguided by underlying parens patriae concepts that they often result in the purposeless stigmatization of a far greater range of youths than the juvenile justice system has any justification in attempting to deal with. Indeed, increasing evidence suggests that the net effect of such record keeping is to ensure that many of the subject juveniles will mature into confirmed delinquents.