Adolescent Development
From the conclusion: “Maryland has the most extreme racial disparities for those incarcerated for long terms in the United States. That should alarm Maryland leadership and its residents. These disparities are rooted in policing practices that target communities of color, a lack of investment and opportunity in historically disadvantaged neighborhoods, and an overly punitive sentencing,…
This brief highlights the United States Supreme Court’s most important language in landmark cases about young people’s rights. These quotes can be used to bolster the arguments and pleadings of juvenile defense attorneys and advocates as they defend youth caught in the legal system.
From the Abstract: “Modern doctrine and scholarship largely take it for granted that offenders should be criminally punished for reckless acts. Yet, developments in our understanding of human behavior can shed light on how we define and attribute criminal liability, or at least force us to grapple with the categories that have existed for so…
From the abstract: “All countries distinguish between minors and adults for various legal purposes. Recent U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning the legal status of juveniles have consulted psychological science to decide where to draw these boundaries. However, little is known about the robustness of the relevant research, because it has been conducted largely in the…
This is a sample motion from Maryland asking the court to exclude tangible evidence recovered during a stop and arrest based on lack of probable cause for the search. The motion includes arguments about implicit racial bias, structural racism, procedural justice, racial justice, and adolescent brain development.
This article argues the Supreme Court’s recognition that children “are different than adults” creates a substantive due process right for every child to have an individualized assessment of their youthfulness at all critical junctures of a juvenile court proceeding, including transfer hearings. The article reviews transfer hearing statutes across the country and also analyzes fourteen…
From the abstract: “Forcible separation and detention of children from parents seeking asylum in the United States has been decried as immoral and halted by court order. Babies and children have been separated and transported to facilities sometimes many miles away. Limited data on forced detention of unaccompanied minors reveal high incidence of posttraumatic stress,…
“In this article, we address the question left unanswered by the Court in J.D.B.: In light of the substantial research establishing that children’s understanding and appreciation of the Miranda warnings are quite limited, must the traditional test for assessing the validity of an individual’s waiver of their Miranda rights be re-calibrated to take into account…
