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Cruel & Unusual: Kids Version

By Brian Tannebaum, Esq.

Few have noticed the lines blurred between child and adult in the criminal justice system. With an increase in "youth" violence over the last 30 years, the response of has been typical: throw 'em all in jail.And we have. You're welcome. Thursday I will go to juvenile court to represent an otherwise good student from a good family who got in a fight with another girl resulting in no injuries. The days of these "school fights" resulting in a visit to the "office" and a grounding from Mom and Dad, are long over. We prefer handcuffs, jail, court, sentence.It is our failure. Visit any juvenile court and watch your childhood missteps be adjudicated by men and women in robes, argued by prosecutors, one after the other.Justice Kennedy says that "as compared to adults, juveniles have a ??lack of maturity and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility??; they ?are more vulnerable or susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure?; and their characters are ?not as well formed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Criminal Defense on May 18, 2010 (boomark / email).