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…

ALL EYEZ ON RAP & HIP-HOP: ANALYZING HOW BLACK EXPRESSION IS CRIMINALIZED AND THE LANGUAGE OF THE RAP ACT OF 2022

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The Black existence, in the United States of America, has always been regarded as a conditional right. Conventionally, Blackness must always be nonviolent and non-disruptive to safely exist. Because of this, Blackness cannot be confined to restraints and disrupts these conventions with acts of joy and creative expression. Black creativity is both unconventional and sacred.…

From First Offense to Future Arrests: The Impact of Probation on Youth

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A new study by The Pew Charitable Trusts shows that young people assigned to probation after their first offense are more likely to be rearrested in the future, particularly for technical violations, than their peers diverted away from probation. The study, based on data provided by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) and analyzed by…

Cultivating Purpose in Adolescence

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This report describes the process of developing or cultivating purpose and explains why purpose is one of the key aspects of healthy development in adolescence. Cultivating purpose is widely beneficial for adolescents, and it is particularly important for adolescents from traditionally underserved groups. Purpose is essentially a renewable resource that has the potential to benefit…

The Intersection of Adolescent Brain Development and Anti-Black Racism

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The focus of this paper is on the experience of Black adolescents who are growing up amidst evolving national beliefs about racism, ongoing political debate surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, and a growing national awareness about the experience of being Black in America.

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…

Research Overview on Positive Youth Development

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Studies consistently confirm that incarcerating young people causes great harm, including increased victimization, recidivism, school drop-out, and long-term physical and mental health issues. Fortunately, research also identifies what young people need for positive, healthy development. Alternatives to incarceration, such as release schedules, should be crafted to ensure each young person has time for and access…

Challenging the Status Quo: Mobilizing Youth Defense Teams to Uphold Youth Rights & Uproot Injustice

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This Racial Justice Webinar was hosted by the Gault Center and Georgetown Law’s Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative on May 29, 2024. The webinar focused on a collective call to action for the youth defense community to transform the juvenile legal system by centering youth and their constitutional rights to freedom, liberty, and equality. This…

Advocating for Play, Recreation & Leisure as Essential to Adolescent Development & Youth Defense

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In this session of our 2023 Racial Justice Training Series, Prof. Kristin Henning, Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law, and Mary Ann Scali, Executive Director of The Gault Center, will be joined by Dr. Linda Caldwell, Emeritus Distinguished Professor in the Dept. of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at The…

Still Separate & Unequal: Evaluating the Legacy of Brown

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In this webinar from May 17, 2023, the Gault Center kicked off the 70th year of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Nearly 70 years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Specifically, the Court acknowledged that separating children…

Overuse of Psychiatric Medication in the Juvenile Legal & Child Welfare Systems

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A webinar from April 10, 2023 with Dr. Martin Irwin, MD, Clinical Professor at the NYU School of Medicine, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Multiple studies have concluded that children in the juvenile legal system or foster care, many of whom are victims of abuse and trauma, are prescribed psychiatric medication at a rate…

Protecting Youth Wellbeing: The Intersection of Systemic Racism & Overmedication in Juvenile Court

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Webinar provided by the Gault Center on April 25, 2023. This training provided an historical overview on the racialized use of medicine, provider bias, and cultural mistrust, followed by a discussion on practical tools youth defenders can utilize to litigate against medication conditions and/or misdiagnoses of youth in the juvenile legal system. This training built…

Cultivating Caring Communities in Schools: Tools for Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline

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School-based arrests have long made up a substantial number of cases in the juvenile legal system. This is particularly true for Black, Native/Indigenous, and Latino students; immigrant students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students, and other historically marginalized students. Despite significant decreases in the rate of serious crimes and violence on school campuses over the past…

Advocating for Children & Families in the Era of Mass Incarceration

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali, Executive Director of the Gault Center, were joined by Jeannette Bocanegra, Executive Director of Justice for Families (J4F), and Prof. Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology and Raymond Pace &…

Promoting Adolescent Resilience, Storytelling, & Reform

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In this final session of our 2022-2023 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning, Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative at Georgetown Law, and Mary Ann Scali, Executive Director of the Gault Center, were joined by Clarence Ford, Social Justice and Wellbeing Advisor at the W. Haywood Burns Institute; Prof.…

The Traumatic Impact of Policing on Youth Health & Wellbeing

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali were joined by Dr. Juan Del Toro, researcher in applied developmental psychology and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Dr. Tiffani J. Johnson, Assistant Professor in the…

Humanizing Youth of Color & Challenging Adultification, Transfer, & Severe Sentences

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali were joined by Eric Campbell, formerly incarcerated founder of Some People Understand Differently (SPUD), Inc.; Carmen Daugherty, Deputy Executive Director of Advancement Project; and Kristen Rome, Co-Executive Director of Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. This…

Policing by Proxy: Shifting the Public Narrative about Black & Brown Youth

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Ebony Howard, Deputy Director of The Gault Center, were joined by Thomas J. Bahr, Deputy Public Defender at the Office of the San Diego Public Defender, who will discuss the California case In re Edgerrin J.; Dr. Noël…

Closing the School to Prison Pipeline

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, held on August 31, 2022, Prof. Kristin Henning and Ebony Howard, Deputy Director of The Gault Center, were joined by Harold Jordan, Nationwide Education Equity Coordinator at the ACLU of Pennsylvania; Reyna Rollolazo, Community Engagement and Anti-Racism Director at TeamChild; and Amir…

Decriminalizing Adolescent Speech & Contempt of Cop

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali, Executive Director of The Gault Center, were joined by Dr. Shameka Stanford, Juvenile Speech-Language Pathologist; and Duci Goncalves, Deputy Chief Counsel of the Youth Advocacy Division at Massachusetts’ Committee for Public Counsel Services. This session…

Decriminalizing Race Pride, Free Speech, & Adolescent Identity Development

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For the July session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series, Prof. Kristin Henning and Mary Ann Scali were joined by Dr. Kristia Wantchekon, Secondary Lecturer of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and incoming Assistant Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, and Orlando Johnson, Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University…

Decriminalizing Fashion & Culture for Youth of Color

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The April session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series. For this session, held on Monday, April 25, Prof. Kristin Henning and Ebony Howard, Deputy Director of The Gault Center, was joined by Prof. Andrea L. Dennis, Associate Dean for Faculty Development & John Byrd Martin Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School…

Defending Sexual Identity Development & Challenging Sexualized Myths about Youth of Color

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In this session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning and Ebony Howard, Deputy Director of The Gault Center, were joined by Maheen Kaleem, Deputy Director of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, and Brittany Mobley, Deputy Chief of the Juvenile Services Program at DC Public Defender Service. In this…

Decriminalizing Play & Educating Stakeholders on the Value of Play in Healthy Adolescent Development

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In this second session of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning was joined by Prof. Harrison P. Pickney of Clemson University’s College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences; and Dr. Rasul Mowatt, Department Head of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University. This session was built…

Reconsidering Decision Making in the Juvenile Court System Through the Lens of our Racial History

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On August 12, 2021, NJDC and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges hosted a discussion with noted professors Kristin Henning of Georgetown Law and Geoff Ward of Washington University in St. Louis, about the historical impact of racism and bias on the juvenile court system and the trauma that flows to youth…