You Have the Right to Remain a Child: The Right to Juvenile Treatment for Youth in Conflict With the Law

This Article argues the Supreme Court’s recognition of differences between youth and adults that make youth less culpable, more vulnerable to harm, and more prone to growth and rehabilitation can reinvigorate due process challenges to the exclusion and transfer of youth from the juvenile justice system to the adult criminal justice system and support the establishment of a substantive right to juvenile treatment for youth in conflict with the law. Although this right has yet to be recognized in the U.S., a substantive right to juvenile treatment is supported by international law and legal systems around the world.