Juvenile Law Commons^™

Juvenile Justice After Graham V. Florida: Keeping Due Process, Autonomy, And Paternalism In Balance, Kristin N. Henning

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Legal disputes involving children invariably evoke a complex matrix of issues such as child and adolescent capacity, individual rights and autonomy, parental authority, and in the criminal justice context-diminished culpability for a minor's actions. While it is difficult to identify a clear and cohesive jurisprudence regarding the balance between children's autonomy and children's vulnerability across Supreme Court cases, a series of cases over the last decade, including Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, and J.D.B. v. North Carolina, offer a more consistent view of children as vulnerable, malleable, and in need of protection, at least in the …

Adolescent Brain Science After Graham V. Florida, Terry A. Maroney

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In Graham v. Florida, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits a sentence of life without possibility of parole for a non-homicide crime committed when the offender was under the age of eighteen. In an earlier Article, The False Promise of Adolescent Brain Science in Juvenile Justice, this author noted the pendency of Graham and its companion case, in which petitioners and their amici offered neuroscientific arguments closely paralleling those made by the defendant in Roper v. Simmons. Kennedy’s opinion in Graham clarified what his opinion in Roper had left ambiguous: the Court believes neuroscience relevant to general …

Sex-Cells: Evaluating Punishments For Teen "Sexting" In Oklahoma And Beyond, John M. Krattiger

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The History And Hardship Experienced By Girls In The Las Vegas Juvenile Justice System, Ana Zuniga

McNair Poster Presentations

Previous research has defined several factors as predictors to juvenile delinquency. Characteristics among the youth involved in criminal behavior include various home placements, running away, mental health problems, physical and sexual abuse, delinquency history, and family members with a delinquent background. These factors were analyzed in the current to observe whether the predictors were relevant to girls detained in the Las Vgeas juvenile justice system. While observing the data in this study, it appeared that predictors described in previous research were in fact present among this population. However, Further research should take an in depth look at these factors in …

Juvenile Justice: The Fourth Option, Christopher Slobogin, Mark R. Fondacaro

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The current eclectic mix of solutions to the juvenile-crime problem is insufficiently conceptualized and too beholden to myths about youth, the crimes they commit, and effective means of responding to their problems. The dominant punitive approach to juvenile justice, modeled on the adult criminal justice system, either ignores or misapplies current knowledge about the causes of juvenile crime and the means of reducing it. But the rehabilitative vision that motivated the progenitors of the juvenile court errs in the other direction, by allowing the state to assert its police power even over those who are innocent of crime. The most …

The False Promise Of Adolescent Brain Science In Juvenile Justice, Terry A. Maroney

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Recent scientific findings about the developing teen brain have both captured public attention and begun to percolate through legal theory and practice. Indeed, many believe that developmental neuroscience contributed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s elimination of the juvenile death penalty in Roper v. Simmons. Post-Roper, scholars assert that the developmentally normal attributes of the teen brain counsel differential treatment of young offenders, and advocates increasingly make such arguments before the courts. The success of any theory, though, depends in large part on implementation, and challenges that emerge through implementation illuminate problematic aspects of the theory. This Article tests the legal …

2009 Nevada Nonprofit’S Children Summit: Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, And Youth Homelessness, The Nevada Institute For Children’S Research And Policy

Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy Reports

On April 14, 2009, approximately 175 individuals from public and private nonprofit agencies across Nevada came together with representatives from national organizations and federal agencies to attend the Nevada Nonprofit’s Children Summit hosted by Senator Harry Reid and co-sponsored by the Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy and the Children’s Advocacy Alliance. Participants gained insight into federal initiatives and discussed practice and policy priorities in the areas of child welfare, juvenile justice and youth homelessness. This briefing presents the recommendations for federal policy proposed by the participants, both state and national, to improve programs and practices in Nevada around …

Conceptualizations Of Legalese In The Course Of Due Process, From Arrest To Plea Bargain: The Perspectives Of Disadvantaged Offenders, Shiv Narayan Persaud

Journal Publications

"Equal protection" and "due process of law" are constitutional guarantees tenaciously embraced by all Americans.' While numerous studies focused on how these guarantees play out in the lives of offenders, few sought to examine these guarantees from the standpoint of offenders, particularly those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Equal Protection Clause makes clear, in part, that, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due …

What’S Wrong With Victims’ Rights In Juvenile Court?: Retributive V. Rehabilitative Systems Of Justice, Kristin N. Henning

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

While scholars have written extensively about the victims’ rights movement in capital and criminal cases, there has been very little discussion about the intersection of victims’ rights and the juvenile justice system. Statutes that allow victims to attend juvenile hearings and present oral and written impact statements have shifted the juvenile court’s priorities and altered the way judges think about young offenders. While judges were once primarily concerned with the best interests of the delinquent child, victims’ rights legislation now requires juvenile courts to balance the rehabilitative needs of the child with other competing interests such as accountability to the …

Boys, Masculinities And Juvenile Justice, Nancy E. Dowd

UF Law Faculty Publications

Culture and tradition are part of the macrosystem of ideas and beliefs that have a dramatic effect on children and families. One aspect of culture is gender beliefs, values and roles. Feminist analysis has explored the incorporation of gender in a wide range of structures, challenging gender bias and advocating reform of a range of laws, structural systems, and social practices. Masculinities analysis, an outgrowth of feminist analysis that focuses on men as gendered subjects, provides a perspective to consider those areas in which men are disproportionately present either in positions of power and privilege, or in positions of disadvantage. …

Alternatives For Youth’S Advocacy Program:Reducing Minority Youth Incarceration Placements In Cleveland, Ohio, Christopher A. Mallett, Linda Julian

Social Work Faculty Publications

Detaining and incarcerating juvenile delinquents is ineffective and costly juvenile justice policy. These placements, indicative of the “tough on crime” approach, become problematic for many of these youths who do not have the advantage of legal counsel because they waive this right. In addition, a majority of these youths have a mental health or special education disability that does not get addressed in correctional facilities. Alternatives for Youth's Advocacy Program (AFY) in Cleveland, Ohio (Cuyahoga County) is addressing these issues using a holistic approach that includes the provision of civil legal representation to assist youths in accessing disability services and …

A Tangled Web Of Justice: American Indian And Alaska Native Youth In Federal, State, And Tribal Justice Systems, Addie C. Rolnick, Neelum Arya

Scholarly Works

This policy brief is intended to serve as a resource for tribes, juvenile justice professionals, and other stakeholders interested in improving outcomes for Native youth by presenting the current state of knowledge on Native youth and their involvement in justice systems across the country.

In Re Gault And The Promise Of Systemic Reform, Katherine R. Kruse

Scholarly Works

The right to counsel for juveniles in delinquency cases that the Supreme Court declared in In re Gault can be seen as an effort at systemic reform - a purposeful alteration of the structure, procedure, or resources of a law-administering system that aims to better align the system's operation with the principles or ideals on which it is based. Although the Court articulated the benefits of counsel in terms of individual representation, juvenile defenders are increasingly called upon to expand their role to include broader forms of advocacy aimed at reforming juvenile justice system practice and procedure. The predominant stakeholder …

Juvenile Crime And Criminal Justice: Resolving Border Disputes, Jeffrey Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

Rising juvenile crime rates during the 1970s and 1980s spurred state legislatures across the country to exclude or transfer a significant share of offenders under the age of eighteen to the jurisdiction of the criminal court, essentially redrawing the boundary between the juvenile and adult justice systems. Jeffrey Fagan examines the legal architecture of the new boundary-drawing regime and how effective it has been in reducing crime.

The juvenile court, Fagan emphasizes, has always had the power to transfer juveniles to the criminal court. Transfer decisions were made individually by judges who weighed the compet­ing interests of public safety and …

Introduction: The Challenge Of Lionel Tate, Elizabeth S. Scott, Laurence Steinberg

Faculty Scholarship

Legal reforms over the past generation have transformed juvenile crime regulation from a system that viewed most youth crime as the product of immaturity into one that is ready to hold many youths to the standard of accountability imposed on adults. Supporters of these reforms argue that they are simply a response to the inability of the traditional juvenile court to deal adequately with violent youth crime, but the legal changes that have transformed the system have often been undertaken in an atmosphere of moral panic, with little deliberation about consequences and costs.

In this book we argue that a …

Adolescent Development And The Regulation Of Youth Crime, Elizabeth S. Scott, Laurence Steinberg

Faculty Scholarship

Elizabeth Scott and Laurence Steinberg explore the dramatic changes in the law’s conception of young offenders between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. At the dawn of the juvenile court era, they note, most youths were tried and punished as if they were adults. Early juvenile court reformers argued strongly against such a view, believing that the justice system should offer young offenders treatment that would cure them of their antisocial ways. That rehabilitative model of juvenile justice held sway until a sharp upswing in youth violence at the end of the twentieth century …

Juvenile Justice: The Nathaniel Abraham Murder Case, Eugene Arthur Moore

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Once in a while, a case will come along that has such an enormous impact on the law that it is certain to draw attention. One such case was the Nathaniel Abraham murder case----a case involving the sentencing of a young eleven-year-old child in a system designed for older juvenile offenders, which demonstrated some of the novel and important issues facing the juvenile courts today. With the onset of such issues, the Juvenile Justice System has developed into a complex field of vital importance. Investing in the Juvenile Justice System allows us to invest in our future. Although frequently viewed …

Death Is Not Different: The Transfer Of Juvenile Offenders To Adult Criminal Courts, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

The US Supreme Court first reviewed a state's statutory procedure for juvenile transfer to adult criminal courts in Kent v. US 1 Morris Kent was a fourteen-year-old first convicted for purse snatching and house-breaking, placed on probation, and later charged at the age of sixteen with robbery and rape. 2 Kent was arrested, presumably admitted to involvement in these crimes after seven hours of interrogation, and placed in a receiving home for one week.

Disparity Rules, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

In 1992, Congress required states receiving federal juvenile justice funds to reduce racial disparities in the confinement rates of minority juveniles. This provision, now known as the disproportionate minority contact standard (DMC), is potentially more far-reaching than traditional disparate impact standards: It requires the reduction of racial disparities regardless of whether those disparities were motivated by intentional discrimination orjustified by "legitimate" agency interests. Instead, the statute encourages states to address how their practices exacerbate racial disadvantage.

This Article casts the DMC standard as a partial response to the failure of constitutional and statutory standards to discourage actions that produce racial …

Standing In Babylon, Looking Toward Zion, Kate Kruse

Faculty Scholarship

The UNLV Conference on Representing Children in Families convened an impressive group of academics, policymakers, practitioners, and participants in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to consider how to move beyond recommendations made ten years earlier about how lawyers for children should approach their work. This essay examines the interrelationship between idealism and realism in the definition of lawyers’ roles as representatives of children and the importance of idealized visions to the process of reforming dysfunctional systems, using examples of child welfare and juvenile justice system reform.

Public Preferences For Rehabilitation Versus Incarceration Of Juvenile Offenders: Evidence From A Contingent Valuation Survey, Daniel S. Nagin, Alex R. Piquero, Elizabeth S. Scott, Laurence Steinberg

Faculty Scholarship

Research Summary:
Accurately gauging the public's support for alternative responses to juvenile offending is important, because policy makers often justify expenditures for punitive juvenile justice reforms on the basis of popular demand for tougher policies. In this study, we assess public support for both punitively and nonpunitively oriented juvenile justice policies by measuring respondents' willingness to pay for various policy proposals. We employ a methodology known as "contingent valuation" (CV) that permits the comparison of respondents' willingness to pay (WTP) for competing policy alternatives. Specifically, we compare CV-based estimates for the public's WTP for two distinctively different responses to serious …

Reforming Juvenile Delinquency Treatment To Enhance Rehabilitation, Personal Accountability And Public Safety, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

This article describes the widespread violence, beatings and other abuse the U.S. Justice Department has found in its inspections of several state juvenile detention facilities. The article then discusses Missouri's Division of Youth Services (DYS), which is widely considered the national model of sound practices. The article concludes with recommendations for national reform.

Capitalizing Adolescence: Juvenile Offenders On Death Row, Mary Berkheiser

Scholarly Works

Taking as its sample group the 2005 population of seventy-two juvenile offenders on death row, this article examines the roles of peer influence and group offending in the murders committed by those now awaiting execution. Based on that examination, the article suggests certain reforms in the capital trials of juveniles. To set the stage, the article first marshals the evidence supporting the “group crime” theory of youth violence and then discusses the critical role of peers in adolescent development and group offending of a violent crime.

Between Dependency And Liberty: The Conundrum Of Children’S Rights In The Gilded Age, David S. Tanenhaus

Scholarly Works

Although legal scholars often assume that the history of children's rights in the United States did not begin until the mid twentieth century, this essay argues that a sophisticated conception of children's rights existed a century earlier, and analyzes how lawmakers articulated it through their attempts to define the rights of dependent children. How to handle their cases raised fundamental questions about whether children were autonomous beings or the property of either their parents and/or the state. And, if the latter, what were the limits of parental authority and/or the power of the state acting as a parent? By investigating …

Loyalty, Paternalism, And Rights: Client Counseling Theory And The Role Of Child's Counsel In Delinquency Cases, Kristin N. Henning

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article seeks to identify an attorney-child framework that will (1) give substantive meaning to the child's constitutional right to counsel in delinquency cases, (2) satisfy the ethical mandates of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, (3) have the flexibility to accommodate cognitive limitations while enhancing the decisionmaking capacity of children and adolescents, and (4) engage parents in various aspects of the delinquency case without compromising the sanctity of the attorney-client relationship or sacrificing the fundamental rights, dignity, and autonomy of the child client.

Developmental Incompetence, Due Process, And Juvenile Justice Policy, Elizabeth S. Scott, Thomas Grisso

Faculty Scholarship

In 2003, the Florida District Court of Appeal reversed the murder conviction and life sentence imposed on Lionel Tate, who was twelve years old when he killed his six-year-old neighbor. Since Lionel was reported to be the youngest person in modern times to be sent to prison for life, the case had generated considerable debate, and the decision was appealed on several grounds. What persuaded the appellate court that the conviction could not stand, however, was the trial court's rejection of a petition by Lionel's attorney for an evaluation of his client's competence to assist counsel and to make a …

Results Of A Judicial Survey On The Maryland Department Of Juvenile Services, Gloria Danziger, Barbara A. Babb

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Predicting Death In Young Offenders: A Retrospective Cohort Study, Carolyn Coffey, Rory Wolfe, Andrew W. Lovett, Paul Moran, Eileen Cini, George C. Patton

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Objective: To examine predictors of death in young offenders who have received a custodial sentence using data routinely collected by juvenile justice services.

Design: A retrospective cohort of 2849 (2625 male) 11–20-year-olds receiving their first custodial sentence between 1 January 1988 and 31 December 1999 was identified. Main outcome measures: Deaths, date and primary cause of death ascertained from study commencement to 1 March 2003 by data-matching with the National Death Index; measures comprising year of and age at admission, sex, offence profile, any drug offence, multiple admissions and ethnic and Indigenous status, obtained from departmental records.

Results: Theoverallmortalityratewas7.2deathsper1000person-yearsofobservation. Younger …

Immaturity, Normative Competence, And Juvenile Transfer: How (Not) To Punish Minors For Major Crimes, David O. Brink

ExpressO

This essay critically examines the national trend to get tough on juvenile crime by making it easier to transfer juvenile offenders to adult criminal court. It assesses this trend in light of different rationales for punishment, arguing that immaturity provides retributive, deterrent, and corrective reasons to punish juvenile crime differently than otherwise similar adult crime. Insofar as retributive concepts determine whom to punish and how much to punish, it is especially important that immaturity involves diminished normative competence and, hence, diminished responsibility. In defending a traditional approach to juvenile criminal justice against the reforms embodied in the transfer trend, the …

Lessons From Juvenile Justice History In The United States, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

Properly understood, “juvenile justice” encompasses all four primary categories of juvenile court jurisdiction - - abuse and neglect, adoption, status offenses and delinquency. I will concentrate today on delinquency - - what states have done with * children found to have committed acts that would be crimes if committed by adults.