“You’re on the Right Track!” Using Graduated Response Systems to Address Immaturity of Judgment and Enhance Youths’ Capacities to Successfully Complete Probation

From the Introduction:

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that adolescents’ immaturity warrants special protections under the law. In a series of cases over the past decade, the Court has specifically referenced the legal relevance of adolescents’ reduced culpability, compromised legal decision making, and greater amenability to rehabilitation relative to adults. According to the Court, adolescents are both less culpable than adults and more in need of procedural protections.

In the wake of these seminal Supreme Court opinions, popular support for using adolescent development research to inform juvenile justice system practices and policies continues to grow. However, the connection between developmental research and probation practices is underexplored, despite the fact that the majority of youths in the juvenile justice system receive some form of probation prior to final discharge. This lack of research is particularly problematic given that many youths on probation fail to comply with their court imposed requirements, which can result in placement in secure facilities and other serious consequences.

After describing the current state of juvenile probation in the United States, this Article proposes a developmentally informed probation model utilizing existing research on adolescent development and behavior modification. It then considers the broader legal and policy contexts of such a model: How can a model geared toward changing youths’ behavior be constructed to ensure adequate due process, support family involvement, and avoid unintended consequences (e.g., net widening, racial and ethnic disparities)?”