Juvenile Law Commons^™

State Action That Penalizes Children As Evidence Of A Desire To Harm Politically Unpopular Parents, Catherine E. Smith

Scholarly Articles

This Article is the first to advance the position that when the government takes the extreme step of denying children basic rights and benefits because of their parents, such state action should be recognized not just as evidence of animus against the children, but also as evidence of "a bare desire to harm" their "politically unpopular" parents. Identifying this type of government motivation and calling it what it is--animus toward parents--is just as important as condemning animus against the children themselves. Anti-parent animus that motivates harmful government behavior towards children should be prohibited as an impermissible means to accomplish an …

Originalism And The Common Law Infancy Defense, Craig S. Lerner

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Clearly Unconvincing: How Heightened Evidentiary Standards In Judicial Bypass Hearings Create An Undue Burden Under Whole Woman's Health, Haley Hawkins

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Parent’S Final Sacrifice: Self-Incrimination In Failure To Protect Cases, 51 J. Marshall L. Rev. 377 (2018), Maggie Butzen

UIC Law Review

When criminal proceedings commence, the passive parent is forced to choose the lesser of two evils: testify and risk self-incrimination or guard their constitutional right and risk the person who abused them and their child going free.The passive parent exists at a crossroads: defendant, parent, and victim. The main purpose of this Comment is to analyze this crossroads under a Fifth Amendment lens and propose a workable solution to allow these passive parents a way to better navigate these “two evils.” To be clear: this Comment’s purpose is not to assert whether a passive parent should be held culpable for …

Expert Report Of Catherine Smith, J.D.: Juliana V. United States, Catherine Smith

Scholarly Articles

The Founders created the architecture for the rights of children to self-determination and protection from the sins of their forebears. A central tenet of our democracy is that government, including these federal defendants, should not deprive children (the next generation) of the foundational elements of their lives, liberties or property and should not impose hardships on them for matters of which they have no control. This historical tradition and intent of the Founders of our nation has not always been realized, but has evolved over time as our society gains new insights and understandings of children and our notions of …

Predicting Staff Assault In Juvenile Correctional Facilities, Howard Henderson

Center for Justice Research Reports

This study examines the predictive utility of the community-based Positive Achievement Change Tool–Prescreen (PACT-PS) for staff assault in a sample of 787 state-committed male youth. Bivariate and multivariate analyses indicated the PACT-PS failed to predict staff assault across racial/ethnic groups. Notably, this study also found youth with serious delinquent histories and prior commitments improved the PACT-PS’s ability to predict staff assault. Limitations of this study, suggestions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.

Backward Progress Toward Reinstating Parental Rights, Lashanda Adams

Journal Articles

States have passed reinstatement statutes to address the increased number of legal orphans in the foster care system. For the most part, however, these laws have been inadequate to address the problem because they are motivated by a view of terminated parents that does not fit current realities. Terminated parents have typically been viewed as obstacles to permanence rather than a realistic placement option. The laws often punish parents who opposed the termination of their parental rights and reward those who voluntarily signed relinquishments.

Reinstatement statutes alone are inadequate to address the growing concern over youth aging out of foster …

Police, Heroes, And Child Trafficking: Who Cries When Her Attacker Wears Blue?, 18 Nev. L.J. 1007 (2018), Samuel Vincent Jones

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

30 Tips For Excellence In Juvenile Defense, Julie Ellen Mcconnell

Law Faculty Publications

This article for the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers newsletter provides advice on representing juvenile clients.

A Human Right To Self-Government Over First Nation Child And Family Services And Beyond: Implications Of The Caring Society Case, Naiomi Metallic

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

English Abstract

On January 26, 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) released a watershed decision in a complaint spearheaded by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, headed by Dr. Cindy Blackstock, and the Assembly of First Nations (the “Caring Society” decision). The complaint alleged that Canada, through its Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs (“INAC” or the “Department”), discriminates against First Nations children and families in the provision of child welfare services on reserve. In its decision, the Tribunal found that INAC’s design, management and control of child welfare services on reserve, along with …

Virtual Shackles: Electronic Surveillance And The Adultification Of Juvenile Courts, Chaz Arnett

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

In recent years, there has been a groundswell of attention directed at problems within the American criminal justice system, led in part by Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow, and most recently through the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement. This increased focus on the harms of over-incarceration and net-widening, has had the benefit of introducing to the public other practices utilized in the criminal justice system, such as the widespread use of ankle monitors to track the location of defendants and released offenders. Yet, despite this greater attention, legal scholarship has only recently begun to grapple …

The New Law Of The Child, Anne Dailey, Laura A. Rosenbury

Faculty Articles and Papers

This Article sets forth a new paradigm for describing, understanding, and shaping children's relationship to law. The existing legal regime, which we term the "authorities framework;' focuses too narrowly on state and parental control over children, reducing children's interests to those of dependency and the attainment of autonomy. In place of this limited focus, we envision a "new law of the child" that promotes a broader range of children's present and future interests, including children's interests in parental relationships and nonparental relationships with children and other adults; exposure to new ideas; expressions of identity; personal integrity and privacy; and participation …

A More Just System Of Juvenile Justice: Creating A New Standard Of Accountability For Juveniles In Illinois, Brooke Troutman

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

For over a century, America’s legal system has made substantial reforms to change its treatment of adolescents. Every day, we see that our legal system treats adolescents differently from their adult counterparts. With regards to driving privileges, voting rights, and the ability to drink, our laws recognize that adults and adolescents are different and therefore require a different set of standards. America extended this treatment to the realm of juvenile justice in 1899, when Cook County, Illinois, created the country’s first juvenile court. Originating in this court was the overarching purpose of America’s juvenile justice system—rehabilitation of juvenile offenders. Though …

The Intersection Between Young Adult Sentencing And Mass Incarceration, Josh Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Publications

This Article connects two growing categories of academic literature and policy reform: arguments for treating young adults in the criminal justice system more leniently than older adults because of evidence showing brain development and maturation continue until the mid-twenties; and arguments calling for reducing mass incarceration and identifying various mechanisms to do so. These categories overlap, but research has not previously built in depth connections between the two.

Connecting the two bodies of literature helps identify and strengthen arguments for reform. First, changing charging, detention, and sentencing practices for young adults is one important tool to reduce mass incarceration. Young …

Incarcerating The Accused: Reforming Bail For The Pretrial Detention Of Juveniles And Youths Aged Eighteen To Twenty-One, Leigha A. Weiss

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

This note addresses the injustice of pretrial detention on juveniles, minors, and youths aged eighteen to twenty-one, in New York State. This note will address juveniles, aged eighteen to twenty-one, who are subject to criminal proceedings in adult criminal court and incarceration in adult criminal facilities as well as juveniles or minors below the age of criminal responsibility who are subject to juvenile delinquency proceedings and incarceration in juvenile detention facilities. So many youths are in unnecessary detentions under horrific conditions in adults and juvenile correctional facilities across the country. Serious bail reform is long overdue to provide humane …

Judges Behaving Badly - Clinics Fighting Back: The Struggle For Special Immigrant Juveniles In State Dependency Courts In The Age Of Trump, Bernard P. Perlmutter

Articles

No abstract provided.

Tips For Safety Planning For Children Of Undocumented Parents, Jennifer Baum

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

In 2013, more than 5 million children in the United States (over 7 percent of the total U.S. child population) were living with at least one undocumented parent, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The overwhelming majority of these children (80 percent) were U.S. citizens. The Washington Post reported that more than half a million of these children's parents have in fact been deported since 2009. That's a lot of U.S. children living day to day with the sudden loss, or risk of sudden loss, of a parent through deportation.

Paying The Price: Eliminating Life Without Parole Sentences For Juveniles In Rhode Island, Mackenzie Mcburney

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Collateral Consequences For Justice-Involved Youth: A Model Approach To Reducing The Number Of Collateral Consequences, Jennica Janssen

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

Collateral consequences—stigma and disadvantages individuals face after becoming entangled in the legal system—for justice­involved youth differ by jurisdiction and number in the thousands. Although the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) advocated for the reduction of juvenile collateral consequences over five years ago, after an initial surge in activism, the movement lost momentum. The Federal Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice and several non-profit, public interest law firms, continue to advocate for the clarification of juvenile collateral consequences and the elimination of specific sanctions. This Note recognizes the importance of gathering juvenile collateral …

Sexual Abuse Of Juveniles In Correctional Facilities: A Violation Of The Prison Rape Elimination Act, Sara Medina

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.