The USA: Staying close to home-justice reform in New York City

Abstract

In the current era of mass incarceration, juvenile justice policies in the USA criminalise youthful behaviours, even youths themselves. Motivated by fears of supposed ‘super-predators’ in the 1990s, legislators some 25 years since continue to target poor children and children of colour for harsh punishment and exclusionary sanctions. Policy makers across the country have responded to populist demands to get ‘tough on crime’, setting an agenda that has effectively removed thousands of youths, among them an increasing number of girls and young women, from their families and communities. The assumption that juvenile delinquency has reached such an exceptionally high level that punitive action-in the form of removal-is required is not new, but represents a longstanding practice in the cyclical pattern of American justice reform (Bernard and Kurlychek 2010; Rothman 1990, 2002). For over 200 years, public and private organisations have rallied to clear the streets of vagrant and delinquent youth, and have erected institutions to contain the unfortunates caught in the clean-up operation.