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Re-Imagining Childhood And Reconstructing The Legal Order: The Case For Abolishing The Juvenile Court, Janet Ainsworth

Faculty Articles

Although the institution of the juvenile court developed rather recently in our legal system, it is now quite firmly established: every American state and nearly every industrialized nation has a juvenile court system in place. The juvenile court is not without its critics, however. In this Article, Professor Janet Ainsworth recommends its complete abolition. Professor Ainsworth contends that society's current view of the nature of adolescence no longer comports with the turn-of-the century view that originally informed the development of an autonomous juvenile court, thus undermining the ideological legitimacy of a separate court system for juveniles. In addition, Professor Ainsworth …