Healthy Development as a Human Right: Insights from Developmental Neuroscience for Youth Justice

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-222
Author(s):  
B.J. Casey ◽  
Kim Taylor-Thompson ◽  
Estée Rubien-Thomas ◽  
Maria Robbins ◽  
Arielle Baskin-Sommers
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Youth Justice ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Healthy Development ◽  
Developmental Neuroscience ◽  
Developmental Science ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Class Youth

Healthy development is a fundamental right of the individual, regardless of race, ethnicity, or social class. Youth require special protections of their rights, in part owing to vulnerabilities related to psychological and brain immaturity. These rights include not only protection against harm but opportunities for building the cognitive, emotional, and social skills necessary for becoming a contributing member of society. They apply to all youth, including those within the adult criminal justice system, which raises the legal question of when adult capacity and responsibility begin and special protections are no longer warranted. This article highlights ( a) empirical findings from developmental science on when psychological and neurobiological development reaches maturity; ( b) the extent to which this scientific knowledge guides current policies and practices in the treatment of youth in the United States; and ( c) emerging policies in the treatment of young people in the justice system based on developmental science.

Migrant Detention and Incarceration

Criminology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrique Alvear ◽  
Patrisia Macías-Rojas
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Immigration Enforcement ◽  
Private Business ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
The Social ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
And Gender

Over the last 30 years, the detention of irregular immigrants, undocumented workers, and the incarceration of immigration “offenders” has been on the rise. After 9/11, the social construction of immigrants as a source of “danger” reached a new scale, and the mechanisms through which immigration enforcement reproduces the criminal justice system became even more sophisticated. This article discusses the expansion of migrant detention in the overall “punitive turn” of immigration enforcement, the frequent tension between the state’s practices of power and detainees’ human rights, and the ways through which the securitization of migration replicates the commonsense link among immigration, crime, and national (in)security. This article starts with the complex distinction between migrant detention and incarceration as two different but related state enforcement apparatuses. While detention is a form of “administrative confinement” characterized by a deprivation of liberty for immigration-related civil offenses, incarceration refers to a deprivation of liberty for violations of criminal statutes. Based on detainees’ experiences, this article further examines whether migrant detention should (or not) be conceptualized as punishment, its importation of carceral tactics, and the increasing punitiveness of detention in the 21st century. Global capitalism has made the expansion of migrant detention possible. The privatization of detention has not only brought an extension of institutions, means, agents, and enforcement facilities, but it has also produced enormous profits for corporations, transforming detention into a profitable private business. At the micro level, the privatization also creates a complex geography of detention, a set of politics of carceral time and space, and a tension between mobility and immobility. Overall, the article reviews the most prominent trends in migrant detention in the northwestern hemisphere and in jurisdictions usually neglected by the mainstream literature. The article pays attention to global trends in detention across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and northwestern Europe and also reviews understudied regions such as Australia, Indonesia, Greece, Sweden, Malta, and Norway, among others. The explicit effort to expand the mainstream literature’s Euro-American bias is here developed to problematize and expand the naturalized boundaries of immigration enforcement scholarship. At the same time, this bibliography emphasizes the need for developing more intersectional approaches on migrant detention particularly attentive to factors such as race/ethnicity, class, and gender. The authors would like to thank Mary Bosworth, Cesar Hernandez, David Hernandez, Nicholas de Genova, Amanda McDonald, and the reviewer for their insightful feedback on earlier drafts of this article. Any mistakes and shortcomings are our own.

scholarly journals "I Want Justice From People Who Did Bad Things to Children": Experiences of Justice for Sex Trafficking Survivors

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
John G Morrissey ◽  
◽  
James Havey ◽  
Glenn M Miles ◽  
Nhanh Channtha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Age Appropriate ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
The Individual

This research from the Butterfly Longitudinal Research Project focused on understanding the experiences and perceptions of justice and the justice system for 93 Cambodia participants (including 88 survivors of sex trafficking) as they navigated the legal system. Thirty-two of these survivors had experiences in court and provided details into their courtroom experiences, predominantly within Cambodia but also in the United States. The survivors’ experiences were diverse; however, the prevailing themes were: fear throughout their legal journeys; a low level of awareness and understanding of their legal experiences; and that NGO support was essential for these survivors to engage in the often complicated, lengthy and emotionally challenging legal processes. The recommendations generated from the results at the individual survivor level included: encouraging active participation to make informed decisions on their legal journey; survivors need compassionate support from all stakeholders throughout their legal journey; questioning needs to be appropriate, sensitive and age appropriate; and survivor safety needs to be central both in the courtroom and in the community, as perpetrators and their associates may be threatening. At a wider, societal level, the legal system should be accessible and encourage victim participation. Further, the outcomes of court should be adequate for survivors, in that they provide justice, restitution and deter future crimes; trust in the legal system needs to be developed; information and education about the legal system and legal rights should be promoted; and protection for survivors must be enhanced.

scholarly journals Postcolonial Feminisms and Introducing Sociology in the Imperium

2015 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 63-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jyoti Puri
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Liberal Arts Colleges ◽  
The United States ◽  
Undergraduate Teaching ◽  
Teaching Sociology ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
Globalized World

This article addresses the limits of teaching sociology as a Eurocentric modernist discipline in the context of the postcolonial present. Living in a transnational and globalized world makes the most basic and fundamental sociological concepts woefully delimiting, since they are ahistoricized and universalized terms rooted in a very specific modernist life-world. Words such as ‘individual,’ ‘self,’ ‘society,’ and ‘social’ are used routinely in everyday parlance as if their meanings are self-evident. This is not surprising given that scholarship and undergraduate teaching in the United States have also rendered them as generic, self-evident words without unraveling them reflectively as concepts, much like the ways in which ‘nation,’ ‘state,’ ‘gender,’ ‘race,’ ‘ethnicity,’ ‘sexuality,’ ‘citizen,’ ‘immigrant,’ ‘migrant,’ and ‘other,’ have been shown to reflect particular modern, liberal understandings. What scholarly, disciplinary and pedagogical challenges are faced when notions such as the ‘individual’ and ‘self’ are interrogated in the classroom from transnational and postcolonial perspectives? Writing from the standpoint of an immigrant feminist sociologist teaching in liberal arts colleges in northeast United States, I reflect on strategies that draw students toward a critical engagement with sociology while coming to grips with subject positions and political and cultural histories that shape such engagements.

Student voice and choice in modern band curriculum development

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Clauhs ◽  
Radio Cremata
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
New York State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Musical Preference ◽  
School Music ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Music Faculty

The perspectives and experiences of students should be considered first in the process of any significant curriculum reform. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to music education, and educators have a responsibility to design experiences that meet the needs of learners in their classroom. After hearing the individual voices of students in one New York State school district in the United States, the music faculty and authors developed modern band electives designed to increase access to school music and attract a greater diversity of students by race, ethnicity and musical preference. District-level enrolment data demonstrate how these courses impacted the demographic profile of secondary school music by increasing participation rates among racialized student populations. These modern band music classes counterbalanced the disproportionately white and higher SES enrolment in the traditional band, orchestra and chorus, resulting in a school music programme that was more representative of the overall school population.

scholarly journals Social determinants of mortality from COVID-19: A simulation study using NHANES

PLoS Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. e1003490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Seligman ◽  
Maddalena Ferranna ◽  
David E. Bloom
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Nursing Home Residents ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Level ◽  
High School Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Veteran Status ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Individual

Background The COVID-19 epidemic in the United States is widespread, with more than 200,000 deaths reported as of September 23, 2020. While ecological studies show higher burdens of COVID-19 mortality in areas with higher rates of poverty, little is known about social determinants of COVID-19 mortality at the individual level. Methods and findings We estimated the proportions of COVID-19 deaths by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and comorbid conditions using their reported univariate proportions among COVID-19 deaths and correlations among these variables in the general population from the 2017–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). We used these proportions to randomly sample individuals from NHANES. We analyzed the distributions of COVID-19 deaths by race/ethnicity, income, education level, and veteran status. We analyzed the association of these characteristics with mortality by logistic regression. Summary demographics of deaths include mean age 71.6 years, 45.9% female, and 45.1% non-Hispanic white. We found that disproportionate deaths occurred among individuals with nonwhite race/ethnicity (54.8% of deaths, 95% CI 49.0%–59.6%, p < 0.001), individuals with income below the median (67.5%, 95% CI 63.4%–71.5%, p < 0.001), individuals with less than a high school level of education (25.6%, 95% CI 23.4% –27.9%, p < 0.001), and veterans (19.5%, 95% CI 15.8%–23.4%, p < 0.001). Except for veteran status, these characteristics are significantly associated with COVID-19 mortality in multiple logistic regression. Limitations include the lack of institutionalized people in the sample (e.g., nursing home residents and incarcerated persons), the need to use comorbidity data collected from outside the US, and the assumption of the same correlations among variables for the noninstitutionalized population and COVID-19 decedents. Conclusions Substantial inequalities in COVID-19 mortality are likely, with disproportionate burdens falling on those who are of racial/ethnic minorities, are poor, have less education, and are veterans. Healthcare systems must ensure adequate access to these groups. Public health measures should specifically reach these groups, and data on social determinants should be systematically collected from people with COVID-19.

Penal Optimism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Marie Webster ◽  
Anthony N. Doob
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Relative Size ◽  
The United States ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Necessary Evil

Until the early 1970s, the United States and Canada both had relatively stable imprisonment rates. This paper uses Canada’s continued stability in its rate of incarceration since this period to develop two intertwined explanations for the growth in US imprisonment between 1973 and 2010. First, using data on the relative size of the growth in imprisonment of the individual states, it presents findings that suggest that increased imprisonment was intimately linked to underlying social values. For instance, those states with the largest increases in incarceration were, in terms of the values of their citizens, least “Canadian-like.” In addition, high imprisonment states tended to have values favoring social exclusion. Second, we argue that the United States has consistently demonstrated penal optimism—that is, a strong faith in the ability of the criminal justice system to reduce crime. Prior to the mid-1970s, it was broadly believed that the recourse to prison through a rehabilitation model whereby offenders were treated or “cured” could reduce crime. Starting in the mid-1970s, the focus of optimism changed such that crime was now seen as being able to be controlled through the deterrent and incapacitative effects of high imprisonment. In contrast, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Canada has never been optimistic that the criminal justice system—through any mechanism—could have a substantial impact on crime rates. By extension, imprisonment was seen as a necessary evil to be minimized as much as possible.

scholarly journals Youth Custody: Exercising Our Rights and Responsibilities to Indigenous Youth

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Wickham
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Correctional Facilities ◽  
Internalized Oppression ◽  
Youth Justice ◽  
Indigenous Youth ◽  
Common Experience ◽  
The Individual

Colonization is a common experience amongst Indigenous youth; the effects of which have contributed to an over representation of Indigenous youth in correctional facilities in British Columbia (B.C). Placing youth in custody violates Indigenous values and child rearing practices and advances internalized oppression by focusing on the individual as the problem. In order to counter these effects, Indigenous youth in custody require education and engagement in the areas of colonization and decolonization. This paper discusses how the youth justice system in B.C fails Indigenous youth and how one group of young Indigenous people have acted upon their responsibility to support their incarcerated brothers and sisters.

Reconnecting Youth: Beyond Individualized Programs and Risks

Youth Justice ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 147322542093286
Author(s):  
Randy Myers ◽  
Tim Goddard ◽  
Jennifer Davidtz
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Change ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Youth Justice ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Justice Practice

Presently in the United States, cognitive behavioral approaches are thought to be one of the most effective ways to intervene in the lives of young people in trouble with the law. However, such individualized approaches to youth in trouble with the law, and the risk-based logics that accompany them, say some, often ignore the relationships that young people have with caregivers, as well as the broader social ecological, economic and political contexts within which those relationships develop. Once the individual change work is completed, young people must have productive roles and supportive relationships to return to, especially if we want youth justice practice to translate into justice for youth. Given that meaningful attachments with others serve as the primary context within which individuals learn to regulate emotions and behaviors, youth justice policy and practice ought to seek to repair the capacity to attach and relate –and broader social policy reforms must address the social and economic inequalities that make the adversity and harm that undermine that capacity more likely. In this article, we discuss the limitations of over-relying on skills-based therapies and examine how the neglect of social, material and relational contexts can undermine the meaning and effectiveness of youth justice interventions. Following this, we describe how a youth justice system that attends to relational needs and structural inequalities might better meet the needs of young people.

scholarly journals The Association between Quitline Characteristics and Smoking Cessation by Educational Attainment, Income, Race/Ethnicity, and Sex

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 3297
Author(s):  
David C. Colston ◽  
Bethany J. Simard ◽  
Yanmei Xie ◽  
Marshall Chandler McLeod ◽  
Michael R. Elliott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Effect Modification ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The North ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Individual

Little research examines how tobacco quitlines affect disparities in smoking cessation in the United States. Our study utilized data from the Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2018) (TUS-CPS) and state-level quitline data from the North American Quitline Consortium and National Quitline Data Warehouse. We ran multilevel logistic regression models assessing a state-run quitline’s budget, reach, number of counseling sessions offered per caller, and hours of operation on 90-day smoking cessation. Multiplicative interactions between all exposures and sex, race/ethnicity, income, and education were tested to understand potential effect modification. We found no evidence that budget, reach, number of counseling sessions, or hours available for counseling were associated with cessation in the main effects analyses. However, when looking at effect modification by sex, we found that higher budgets were associated with greater cessation in males relative to females. Further, higher budgets and offering more sessions had a stronger association with cessation among individuals with lower education, while available counseling hours were more strongly associated with cessation among those with higher education. No quitline characteristics examined were associated with smoking cessation. We found evidence for effect modification by sex and education. Despite proven efficacy at the individual-level, current resource allocation to quitlines may not be sufficient to improve rates of cessation.

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