History of Juvenile Justice
The 1646 law which dictated child obedience as being a capital offense punishable by death
What is the Massachusetts Stubborn Child Law?
The number of states that allow children to be tried as adults under specific circumstances
What is all 50 states?
The first person to decide whether a young person is involved with the justice system.
What is law enforcement?
*deciding between charges or informal warnings, which is based on risk and recidivism and impacts Black youth (67% higher for Black and Latino youth)
What is diversion?
The first-ever juvenile court system was established in this year
What is 1899?
*Established in Cook County, Illinois.*
African American youth are 6x more likely to be incarcerated in this state
What is Virginia?
The person who writes narrative reports for judges to review at juvenile disposition meetings that determine sentencing and opportunities for diversion.
What is a probation officer?
*reports on Black youth focused on internal attributions versus focus on external attributions for White youth
The role of "violence disruptors" or "violence interruption"
What is the utilization of programming to prevent and disrupt violence?
*example of differing opinion on restorative justice
https://unherd.com/2026/05/the-new-epidemic-of-black-youth-violence/?edition=us
The creation of this amendment abolished slavery yet legalized other forms of forced labor for Black Americans, including Black youth.
What is the 13th amendment?
*examples of Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center in Virginia (built in 1890) and New Jersey Training School for Boys (built in 1867)
1 in 3 juvenile offenders in Washington state re-offend (recidivate) within this many months.
What is 12 months?
The three most represented ethnic groups in a 2023 youth incarceration rates.
Black youth (293), Native youth (199), and Latino youth (65) per 100,000
*compared to White youth (52) per 100,000
This type of diversion occurs before police involvement or court referrals
What is pre-arrest diversion?
The Supreme Court case that extended constitutional rights, namely due process, to juvenile offenders
In re Gault (1967)
African American youth are 30x more likely to be incarcerated in this state
What is New Jersey?
The rate of Black youth in single-parent households compared to White youth in single-parent households in pretrial detention
2.5 times higher
*sentencing and detention population representation includes a variety of other influential factors, but racial disparities still show
This type of diversion occurs when the court decides to solve youth's misconduct outside of court system
What is pre-court diversion?
This federal legislation organized federal regulations and responsibilities for juvenile delinquency resources in the U.S. Department of Justice
What is the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) of 1974?
*included required separation of youth from adults in adult facilities and complete facility differentiation by 1980
It costs $200,000 per year to house a juvenile resident in this Virginia correctional facility.
The percentage of Black youth in the U.S.
14% yet make up 40% of incarcerated youth
*compared to 53% white youth population making up only 33% of incarcerated youth
Those who decide a youth's eligibility for diversion
Law enforcement and prosecutors