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 A NEWSLETTER OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN JUVENILE LAW AND RESEARCH PROVIDED BY THE NATIONAL JUVENILE JUSTICE PROSECUTION CENTER
Volume II, Issue 2, February 2004
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RECENT CASES
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Hodgkins v. Peterson, __ F.3d __ (7th Cir. 2004)—The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that Indiana’s curfew law is unconstitutional because it unduly burden’s teenagers’ First Amendment rights. The statute had been amended after an earlier lower court decision to allow an affirmative defense that the juvenile was engaging in First Amendment protected activity, but the federal appeals court held that was insufficient to cure the statute’s Constitutional problem since, even as amended, juveniles faced the possibility of arrest and detention, and the fear of arrest would “chill” teenagers in the exercise of their First Amendment rights.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/7th/014115p.pdf
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JURISDICTION/EX POST FACTO
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Santiago v. Spencer, __ F.3d __ (1st Cir. 2003)—The federal appellate court denied habeas corpus relief, agreeing with the Massachusetts appellate courts that a statute extending juvenile court jurisdiction to age 21, passed when Santiago was 19, allowing him to be retried for a murder committed when he was 16, was not an ex post facto law since it did not create liability for any acts which were not criminal when committed or increase the penalty for the offense. The federal court also agreed with the state courts that allowing the prosecution to change its theory of the case on the retrial to accommodate a new interpretation of the murder statute also was not an ex post facto violation.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=1st&navby=case&no=022536
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No Easy Answers As School Killings Increase, BOSTON GLOBE—“School-related deaths in the opening months of this school year already have exceeded the total from all of last year, according to a tally by National School Safety and Security Services Inc., a consultancy based in Cleveland. Since the tally began Aug. 26, 28 killings have occurred in or near the nation's schools, compared with 16 during all of the previous school year … The question vexes educators, psychologists, and police officials across the country: Why -- after years of zero-tolerance policies, metal detectors inside schools, and efforts to intervene with troubled students -- does school violence persist?”
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/01/03/no_easy_answers_as_school_killings_increase?mode=PF
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Romley Warns Schools About Police Interviews, ARIZONA REPUBLIC—“Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley is warning Valley school districts that parents have no legal right to be called or be present if police interview their child on campus. That flies in the face of most school policies and shocks many mothers and fathers but is supported by police. The move comes as the Arizona Supreme Court next week takes up the issue of parental rights in police investigations.”
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0108interrogate08.html
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Arrests of Female Teens for Violent Crime Grow, WOMEN’S ENEWS—“The Crime Index for violent crimes, issued by the FBI, indicates that the arrest rate for girls in the United States rose 103 percent between 1981 and 1997. During that same period, the arrest rate for boys rose only 27 percent. Are girls really becoming more violent? Researchers aren't sure. ‘The juvenile justice system used to be about 95 percent male and 5 percent female,’ says Dr. Elizabeth Cauffman, assistant professor of law and psychiatry research at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh. ‘For whatever reason, we're seeing a shift. Now, it's 80 percent male, 20 percent female and it's still climbing. It could very well be that girls are becoming more violent. We don't know.’”
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1642/context/cover/
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A Different Path For Youth Offenders, PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER—“Youth Aid Panels provide an alternative to court for first-time juvenile offenders who have not committed violent crimes. The District Attorney's Office runs the program and decides who gets a second chance: If they successfully complete the program and its often-creative terms, their criminal record is wiped clean. Their names are kept confidential. If they fail to live up to their agreement - or if they get into more trouble - they go before a judge, explained Assistant District Attorney Mike Cleary, who coordinates the 16-year-old city program. ‘These panels are really community justice at its best,’ Cleary said. ‘The focus of the panel is the juvenile, but it's in balance with the community's concerns and the victims' concerns. In a sense, what we're doing is empowering the community.'"
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/7492782.htm
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Juvenile Arrests 2001, OFFICE OF JUVENILE JUSTICE AND DELINQUENCY PREVENTION—This publication is the latest in OJJDP’s annual analysis of the latest juvenile arrest data from the FBI’s annual publication, "Crime in the United States 2001." In this Bulletin, the OJJDP notes that overall arrest rates, particularly for serious and violent offenses, continued a seven-year decline in 2001.
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/201370.pdf
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Teen Drug Abuse Declines Across Wide Front, MONITORING THE FUTURE—Recently released results of this survey of drug use by 8th, 10th, and 12th graders shows a reduction in their drug use. According to the survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the use of any illicit drug declined 11% over the past year, with the greatest decline in the use of LSD and Ecstasy, which were down more than 40%.
http://monitoringthefuture.org/.
See also http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/news/press03/121903.html
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How Families and Communities Influence Youth Victimization, OFFICE OF JUVENILE JUSTICE AND DELINQUENCY PREVENTION—This research bulletin, prepared by a Bureau of Justice Statistics researcher, analyzes data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, cross-referenced to census information, to find correlations between community and family structure and rates of youth victimization. For example, the research indicates that young people from single parent households, especially those in “central cities,” are significantly more likely to be the victim of violence than other youth.
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/201629.pdf
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WEB RESOURCES
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News and Academic Articles—Several Websites collect articles from periodicals and from “off the beaten path” magazines, which might be useful sources of information for casual reading or for research pertinent to specific cases. FindArticles contains millions of articles from mainstream magazines like Better Homes & Gardens and Harpers Weekly, and less common publications like California CPA and Military Review. The site allows key word searches of its database of articles. The Social Science Research Network maintains a database of thousands of more scholarly articles, including a Legal Scholarship Network of materials published (or about to be published) in law reviews and other academic journals by legal authors. Many of the articles are available for free, while some require a nominal fee.
FindArticles— http://www.findarticles.com/PI/index.jhtml
SSRN— http://www.ssrn.com/lsn/index.html
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Child Trends and Child Trends Databank—Child Trends describes itself as “a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the lives of children by conducting research and providing science-based information to improve the decisions, programs, and policies that affect children.” On its Web site, Child Trends provides a number of “research briefs” in such areas as adolescent sexual behavior, child abuse, neglect, and family violence, children's health, early childhood, and education. On its related Web site, Child Trends Databank, the organization provides a “one-stop-shop” for research and other information “on over 80 key indicators of child and youth well-being.” The research on the Databank Web site is searchable, and much of it can be downloaded.
http://www.childtrends.org
http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org
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 This information is offered for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. This project was supported by Award No. 2002-MU-MU-0003 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the United States Department of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the National District Attorneys Association, or the American Prosecutors Research Institute. |
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