News in Brief The Kids Are All Right—but Why? Young people are drinking and doing drugs less than ever before. What happened to the tawdriness of youth? Jared Keller
News in Brief Wearing an Electronic Monitoring Device Might Be Worse Than Jail Time Beyond the cyclical criminalization that the device provokes, its rules and circumstances clash with the infrastructure of the teenage mind. Julie Morse
News in Brief Protecting Juvenile Offenders From Adult Inmates, and From Themselves The only federal law that regulates detention conditions for juveniles is due for an upgrade. Lauren Kirchner
News in Brief Reconsidering Juvenile Life Sentences—Again A new Supreme Court case could affect thousands of prisoners serving life sentences without parole for crimes they committed as teens. Lauren Kirchner
Economics It’s Poverty, Not the ‘Teenage Brain,’ That Causes the Most Youth Crime A new analysis of crime stats suggests that economics trumps biology in causing violent behavior in teenagers. Lauren Kirchner
Social Justice The Criminalization of Youth Who are we really protecting when we treat kids like second-class citizens? Megan Alrutz
Social Justice From the System to the Street The factors and figures behind the so-called “foster care to prostitution pipeline” Lauren Kirchner
Economics The Cost of Juvenile Incarceration States pay hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to keep each juvenile offender behind bars. A new report calculates that long-term costs of incarceration could add up to $21 billion annually. Lauren Kirchner
News in Brief For Juvenile Records, It’s ‘Justice by Geography’ A new study finds an inconsistent patchwork of policies across states for how juvenile records are sealed and expunged. Lauren Kirchner
Social Justice The Not So Horrible Consequences of Reading Banned Books A new study of Texas teens found no connection between reading edgy books and mental health issues or delinquent behavior. Tom Jacobs