Disposable Children: The Prevalence of Child Abuse and Trauma Among Children Prosecuted and Incarcerated As Adults in Maryland

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This report details the results of the first-ever state-wide Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) survey administered to people currently incarcerated for crimes they committed as children (under eighteen). The trauma measured from ACEs surveys include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; physical and emotional neglect; separation from parents; mental illness or substance abuse in the home; parent…

Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Court, 2021

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The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the National Institute of Justice released a fact sheet highlighting key delinquency caseload trends from 2021. There were 437,300 delinquency cases in the United States, down by 39% from 2020, contributing to an overall decline in delinquency cases since its peak in 1997. In 2021, 44%…

The Risks and Consequences of Innocence in School Discipline: Implications for Policy and Research

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Center Us: Native Youth Survey Report

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The Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) at the Aspen Institute released a report detailing survey results of nearly one thousand Native youth on their needs and priorities across issues that matter most to them. This survey was built and disseminated by Native youth leaders who worked in partnership with CNAY staff to practice and…

Research Overview on Positive Youth Development

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This resource highlights research demonstrating the critical importance of community-based alternatives that promote positive youth development and, in turn, public safety. Specifically, this resource outlines a sampling of studies establishing the importance of fresh air and free time; counseling; sports and extracurricular activities; and family, community, spiritual, or other mentorship activities for youth to thrive. This…

Youth Reoffending: Prevalence and Predictive Risk Factors in Two States

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Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Processing of Delinquency Cases, 2005–2022

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Annotated Bibliography: Racial Trauma

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Annotated Bibliography: Policing as Trauma

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This resource was created as part of the 2022 Racial Justice Training Series, co-hosted with the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative. Advocates and experts gathered each month to discuss a chapter of Prof. Kristin Henning’s Book The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth. Watch recordings of the monthly webinars and see other…

Trends and Characteristics of Delinquency Cases Handled in Juvenile Court, 2022

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This one-page infographic from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention illustrates trends in delinquency cases in 2022.

Incarceration & Crime: A Weak Relationship

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A decade after national protests catapulted the Black Lives Matter movement following the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and four years after a national racial reckoning triggered by Minneapolis police officers killing George Floyd, lawmakers are wavering on their commitment to making the criminal legal system more just and effective. Many are…

Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach

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Support or Court: How States Respond to Youth Who Commit Status Offenses and Children Who Break the Law

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This brief describes how states currently treat two categories of young people: youth who commit status offenses—behaviors that are not categorized as crimes—and young children who do not have the developmental capacity to fully understand the crimes they are committing. Through a 50-state scan of policy and practice, we detail how states respond to these…

From Retributive to Restorative: An Alternative Approach to Justice in Schools

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School districts historically approached conflict-resolution from the perspective that suspending disruptive students was necessary to protect their classmates, even if this caused harm to perceived offenders. Restorative practices (RP) – focused on reparation and shared ownership of disciplinary justice – are designed to address undesirable behavior without imparting harm. This study looks at Chicago Public…

Highlights from the 2022 Juvenile Residential Facility Census

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This one-page infographic illustrates statistics from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Juvenile Residential Facility Census

 Characteristics of Cases Judicially Waived from Juvenile Court to Criminal Court

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This one-page infographic from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention illustrates statistics on waiver from juvenile to criminal courts.

Unheard: The Epidemic of Severe Childhood Trauma Among Girls Tried as Adults

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This research article explores the history of girls prosecuted as adults in courts across the United States. It explores the effects of childhood trauma and victimization on brain and physical development and the connection to involvement in the criminal legal system as children. The article describes the results of a survey of young women who…

The Impact of Covid-19 on the Nation’s Juvenile Court Caseload

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The COVID-19 pandemic, declared a public health emergency in the United States on March 13, 2020, had an impact on the policies, procedures, and data collection activities of juvenile courts relating to the referrals and processing of youth. Mitigation efforts such as stay-at-home orders and school closures impacted the volume and types of law-violating behavior…

The Second Look Movement: A Review of the Nation’s Sentence Review Laws

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This report presents the evolution of the second look movement, which started with ensuring compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in Graham v. Florida (2010) and Miller v. Alabama (2012) on the constitutionality of juvenile life without parole (“JLWOP”) sentences.12 This reform has more recently expanded to other types of sentences and populations, such…

Juvenile Life without Parole: Unusual and Unequal.

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A concentration of a few states has unevenly complied with Miller and the possibility of resentencing provided by Montgomery. Some states have refused to comply at all. This uneven implementation of the Miller decision has a particularly profound impact on racial disparities among those serving JLWOP. An analysis of those deemed worth protecting from JLWOP…

Reimagining Public Safety: Community Listening Sessions with Black Communities and Public Defenders

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This report is the product of a one-year project to hear directly from Black communities about what safety means to them. The Black Public Defender Association, in partnership with the BlackRoots Alliance, Cook County Public Defender, and Northwestern University, conducted more than 100 interviews of Black residents in Chicago to collect their stories and advice…

Misdemeanor Enforcement Trends in New York City, 2016–2022: Diminished Caseloads and Persistent Racial Disparities

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Listening to Black Women and Girls: Lived Experience of Adultification Bias

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Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood

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Equitable Defense: Holistic Defense for Court-Appointed Counsel Cases

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This position paper reviews the research on disparities in justice system outcomes based on whether a person is represented by a public defender or by court-appointed private counsel finding that court-appointed counsel achieve less favorable outcomes due largely to differences in compensation and resources available to them. The paper also reviews the literature on the…