Princeton University

PRIOR has released its’ latest publication “Vulnerable Populations in the Juvenile Justice System: A Research & Policy Conference, “ an edited transcript drawn from a conference held at the Woodrow Wilson School and cosponsored with the Future of Children and the Association for Children of New Jersey. An overflow audience assembled at the Woodrow Wilson School to participate in the day-long symposium that supported the release of the Future of Children volume on juvenile justice policy. 

The event consisted of four sessions, each devoted to a particular aspect of the juvenile justice system: youth in multiple systems; minority youth in the juvenile justice system; policy and practice in the New Jersey region; and a developmental approach to understanding adolescence and crime.

Elizabeth Scott, the Harold R. Medina Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School, delivered the luncheon address; and Professor Lawrence Steinberg of Temple University delivered the opening address. Scholars from the University of Illinois, the University of Massachusetts and the University of California, Irvine and practitioners from the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, New Jersey Juvenile Justice System and the Juvenile Law Center served as panelists.

The experts at the symposium underscored the differences that distinguish juveniles who find themselves in the justice system from adults, and they offered their analyses and recommendations for best practices in creating a juvenile justice system that works for the special needs of adolescents.