Because of its racist origins and modern function, the family policing system is a tool of cultural genocide against Black, Indigenous, and Latine families. The family policing system creates a false dichotomy, pitting parents against children while purporting to promote and support family integrity. Similarly, the family policing system perpetuates the notion that Black, Indigenous, […]
This Essay is written both in honor of the youth defense community and for the youth defense community to offer a widened lens of how our work can fit into a broader strategy of abolition as we continue to evolve as a collective. This Essay is written from the perspective of the Gault Center, marking […]
Trisha was first incarcerated in a youth detention facility when she was just thirteen years old. Her first case, which occurred at age twelve while she was living in a group home, followed a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from years of sustained sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Her charge, aggravated battery, stemmed from […]
In jurisdictions around the country, the criminal punishment system disproportionately impacts children of color at every stage: during arrest, diversion, and incarceration, and, most importantly for this Essay, during prosecution of children in adult court—which is among the most severely disproportionate aspects of the system. While the dominant narrative is that adult court prosecution functions […]
While the U.S. Supreme Court has produced several consequential judicial decisions affirming child rights, numerous other cases brought before the Court have failed to yield civil rights gains for children. In recent years, narrowing interpretations of some constitutional protections have further diminished the likelihood of success in federal civil rights litigation generally. Following the Supreme […]
Under contemporary Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence, legal challenges to the disparate racial impact of state child abuse reporting systems will fail if the litigants are unable to prove actual intent to discriminate by state actors. However, while such federal constitutional remedies are largely unavailable to redress the racially disparate impact of state laws and systems, state […]