National Analysis
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
In January 2024, the National Center for Juvenile Justice released their annual report detailing data trends in juvenile courts across the country from 2005 to 2021. This report provides a national snapshot of various trends in delinquency cases, including key demographic patterns across age, gender, and race at various stages of case processing. Notably, in…
Most states do not set a minimum age of prosecution in juvenile court. And although common sense knowledge of child development1 and international standards2 compel removal of younger children from the juvenile legal system, states have yet to heed the call. Because younger children are inherently more vulnerable,3 they should not be subject to the…
A list covering states that ban shackling young people and those that do not.
A guide to states that ban indiscriminate shackling of young people and those that do not.
The National Juvenile Defender Center (NJDC) performed a qualitative study to better understand bail practices in juvenile courts at the local level, and to ensure juvenile money bail is included in the national movement on bail reform. NJDC emailed an electronic survey to a select number of juvenile defenders from all 50 states, the District…
Infographic on the disparate systems of juvenile defense across the United States and territories.
As stakeholders in the juvenile justice system try to reconcile the due process rights of children with the rehabilitative goal of the juvenile justice system, an understanding of the vast array of approaches being used may be helpful. To that end, NJDC has compiled this survey of statutes and cases from around the country that…