Adolescent Development
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…
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…
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…
Decriminalizing Play & Educating Stakeholders on the Value of Play in Healthy Adolescent Development
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…
In the kickoff of our 2022 Racial Justice Training Series and Book Club, Prof. Kristin Henning was joined by Dr. Laurence Steinberg to discuss adolescent development and race. This session was built around the Introduction, Molotov Cocktail or Science Experiment?, and Chapter 1, American Adolescence in Black and White, of Prof. Henning’s book, The Rage…
On March 24, 2021, NJDC and the Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center hosted a webinar titled FASD & Youth: What Defenders Need to Know. This video includes information about FASD provided by Dr. Larry Burd. Portions of the webinar addressing defense strategies have been edited out of this public version. Description of the webinar: Approximately five…
This is the sixth in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Judge Ernestine S. Gray discusses how understanding of the developmental capacities of young people can impact judicial decision-making at every stage of a juvenile case.
This is the fifth in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh talks about the things we can do to help young people develop in positive ways.
This is the sixth in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Judge Karen Ashby reviews how adolescent development plays into considerations of positive youth development, racial justice, and procedural justice in juvenile courts.
Principle 3: Adolescents develop at different rates socially, emotionally, physically, & cognitively
This is the third in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh explains the science behind adolescent development and how it impacts youth decision-making.
This is the fourth in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Dr. Antoinette Kavanaugh discusses how prior traumatic experiences may influence how young people interact with others and their environment.
This is the second of a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. In this video, Judge Ernestine S. Gray discusses how developmental concepts argue against harsher treatment of young people.
This is the first in a 7-part training video series for juvenile and family court judges on concepts of adolescent development. This video includes the introduction, followed by Judge Karen Ashby discussing the U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence relevant to adolescent development.
Executive Director, Mary Ann Scali at John Jay College on Young People, Justice, and Defending Children
This amicus brief from the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior highlights the adolescent capacity for significant growth and social maturation as well as criminological evidence on the unlikelihood of reoffending and responsiveness to evidence-based treatment among youth accused of sex offenses. The brief ultimately calls for the court to find that a de facto life without parole sentence is grossly disproportionate based on developmental science and research. From the Summary of Argument: “Evan McCarrick Jerald is…
Abstract: “While there has been momentum at both the federal and state levels to curtail extreme punishments for justice-involved juveniles (The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, 2023), 22 states continue to permit the sentence of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP). Pennsylvania is among them. This essay focuses on judicial rationale in five JLWOP re-sentencing cases in…
This article calls for the categorical exclusion of young children from juvenile court jurisdiction as a pathway toward the abolition of the juvenile legal system in its current form. This article highlights the landscape of age-based jurisdictional boundaries across the country: 24 states have no minimum age of arrest and prosecution, while 18 states have…
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…
This paper is part of the Series on Learning from Civil Rights Lawsuits from the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse and focuses on parole review procedures for individuals serving long sentences for crimes committed under age 18, discusses constitutional dimensions of parole review for this group, and proposes model policies supporting a meaningful opportunities for release. From the Executive Summary: “In recent years, people serving…
From the introduction: “In In re Personal Restraint of Asaria Miller, at the urging of merits counsel from the University of Washington’s Race and Justice Clinic, supported by amicus counsel from Seattle University School of Law’s Civil Rights Clinic, the Washington State Court of Appeals took an important step in accounting for the ways that…
