Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Hong: "Prosecutors and the Child Wellbeing Framework"
Esther Hong (Arizona State University (ASU) - Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law) has recently posted to SSRN her paper Prosecutors and the Child Wellbeing Framework, University of Chicago Law Review Online. Here is the abstract:
The guiding principle of the inaugural Restatement of Children and the Law is the Child Wellbeing framework. While the Restatements are written primarily for judges, the goals of the Child Wellbeing framework cannot be fully realized by judges alone. Other stakeholders and state actors involved in youth offenses and crimes must also recognize their responsibility in prioritizing children’s developmental health and wellbeing. This Essay focuses on one specific subset of state actors within the juvenile and criminal systems: prosecutors.
Often, it is the discretionary decisions that prosecutors make—long before a child even steps into a courtroom and meets a judge—that will determine the extent to which the goals of the Child Wellbeing framework can be realized in individual cases and courtrooms, and thereby systemwide. Of particular significance are the initial decisions that prosecutors make that determine the sovereign (federal, state, or tribal) that will be responsible for responding to the youth offense, as well as the system (criminal or juvenile) that will house the prosecution.
The importance of these initial prosecutorial decisions is well-studied, but recent developments in the law, including the Supreme Court’s decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020); new laws and proposed legislation pertaining to youth being tried in juvenile or criminal court; and the forthcoming adoption of this Restatement require that we reexamine their significance.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/family_law/2024/10/hong-prosecutors-and-the-child-wellbeing-framework.html