Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/author/judge-steven-teske/)
If you’re still following along in this series on the problems with plea bargaining in the juvenile justice system, then hopefully you agree that plea bargaining should be eliminated or substantially modified in how it’s applied.
Let’s examine this assertion using Johnny as a case study. He is 15 years old and before the juvenile court for battery on a teacher, affray, disrupting public...
It is a case of mistaken identity, and unfortunately you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, which circumstantially lends credence to the eyewitness account that you committed the crime.
Some things I just don’t get.
I get it that the fastest runner doesn’t always win the race and the strongest doesn’t always win the battle. I get it that chance can decide outcomes. And when chance is the deciding factor, it seems unfair to the fastest and the strongest, but welcome to the underdog.
It’s about time someone wrote a book that informs readers about the unadulterated truth of how we treat kids in America. It isn’t flattering, and worse, the future doesn’t look promising despite reform movements peppered across our nation.
It is a natural human emotion to be scared of what we don’t understand. And sometimes the fear is too great and we check our brains at the door.
I don’t need adolescent brain research to inform me that teenagers are neurologically wired to do stupid things.
Out of destruction can come rebirth.
Like the phoenix, a mystical bird of Greek mythology that rises from the ashes of its predecessor, we are experiencing today a rebirth of a once promising trend in juvenile justice I refer to as deconstruction, which goes well beyond what we commonly call deinstitutionalization.
What does it mean to be “tough on crime”?
As we moved away from the “crimequake” of the ’90s and watched the juvenile crime rate fall, the fear that once pushed us off the slippery slope and into a lock ’em up frenzy was replaced by evidence-informed policymaking that emphasizes community-based solutions.
It's one thing to talk about and describe trends in juvenile justice, but it’s an entirely different creature when trying to explain why they occur.