New Directions in Research and Practice at the Intersection of Youth/Emerging Adults and the Legal System

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

This thematic panel highlights innovative research and practice on young peoples’ involvement with the legal system. Life course criminology affirms arrest, court contact, or punishment as a juvenile or emerging adult as salient experiences that can generate long-term negative consequences into adulthood. The first two presentations add understanding to this premise by examining gender-specific health consequences of juvenile system involvement and the impacts of drug law reform for police contacts among emerging adults. The final two presentations explore how this premise is applied in practice through developmentally-informed interventions for system-involved youth, including specialized courts tailored to emerging adults’ needs. Collectively, presentations speak to the promise of developmentally-informed scholarship and practice for reducing the long-term harms associated with legal system involvement for juveniles and emerging adults.

Sub Unit

• Area II. Perspectives on Crime / 2. Developmental and Life Course Perspectives

Individual Presentations

• Health Outcomes in Young Adulthood: Exploring the Effects of Gender and Juvenile Justice System Contact - Julie Krupa, Michigan State University; Jordan Michael Parker, Michigan State University

• The Impact of Recreational Marijuana Legalization on Emerging Adults’ Legal System Contact and Consequences: Preliminary Findings - Kathleen Powell, Drexel University; Nathan Wong Link, Rutgers University - Camden; Sarah Lageson, Rutgers University - Newark; Jordan Hyatt, Drexel University; Christopher Uggen, University of Minnesota; Loni Philip Tabb, Drexel University

• Towards a New Model for Helping Gang-Involved Youth during the Transition to Adulthood - Paul Boxer, Rutgers University - Newark; Joanna Kubik, Rider University; Stephanie Marcello, Rutgers University Behavioral Healthcare

• Supporting Emerging Adults in a Specialty Collaborative Court - Bruce Chan, San Francisco Superior Court; Celina Hennessey, Felton Institute

Chair

• Kathleen Powell, Drexel University

Organized by a Division or external group?

Organized by the Division of Developmental and Life-course Criminology.