Recent increases in some types of crime by young people in Maryland have led certain law enforcement officials and others to call for greater levels of “accountability.”
Before reflexively accepting these calls, we need to consider what accountability should look like in the context of juvenile justice. In doing so, it is important to keep in mind what science and research tell us about how to promote positive outcomes for children. This is because when it comes to public safety, what is best for children is best for everyone.
There is no question that there should be consequences for those young people who are stealing cars, robbing people and using guns in armed carjackings or to settle disputes that have resulted in senseless deaths. Accountability is foundational to the public’s sense of justice and public safety.
However, in the case of children, it is critically important that accountability be constructive. While the interest of public safety may require taking some children off the streets temporarily, one is mistaken to believe that punitive measures aimed at arresting, detaining, and locking up more (and younger children) provide for more accountability and safer communities.
Just as we know that pushing kids out of school for violating school rules is associated with negative long-term outcomes, we know that justice involvement is more likely to result in re-offending than pre-arrest diversion, that incarceration results in worse outcomes than community-based alternatives, and that the recidivism rate is higher for young people who are charged and convicted as adults and sent to adult prisons than for those adjudicated in juvenile court. In short, we should not equate accountability with punishment.
The public interest is best served when accountability interventions help young offenders recognize the harm they have inflicted on others and the community, take responsibility for their actions, and change their behavior.
To get this result, it is essential that interventions recognize where each young person is developmentally and be based on what is known about adolescent development and behavior. For example, harsh punishments for young children engaged in risky experimentation typical of adolescence can interrupt the normal pattern of aging out of this behavior and the child’s healthy socialization.
Treatment by authority figures that kids perceive as unfair—such as police pressuring kids to confess during an interrogation—can accentuate antisocial tendencies and disrespect for the law, impeding moral development.
Accountability measures need to recognize that children think differently from adults, are emotionally immature, lack solid decision-making skills, and do not have fully formed moral values. The measures need to be designed to help young people mature, see alternatives and make good choices, resist peer pressure, control impulses, and internalize social norms.
Accountability strategies must also be trauma-informed and recognize the profound impact that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have on a child’s development and behavior. Justice-involved children disproportionately have had ACEs, potentially traumatizing experiences such as psychological, physical or sexual abuse; witnessing violence; living with family members who suffer from mental illness or substance abuse or who were formerly incarcerated. Research tells us that ACEs can manifest in aggression, impulsive behavior, lack of empathy and callousness. Accountability demands close attention to the child’s history and mental health, emotional, and behavioral needs. Failing to pay attention can result in actions that are re-traumatizing, counterproductive and harmful.
Maryland got it right when it required school discipline to reflect restorative practices, when it finally established a minimum age for juvenile court jurisdiction, and when it gave young people access to an attorney during interrogation. These are developmentally appropriate policies that recognize both the status and vulnerability of children and the responsibility adults have in protecting them and in providing appropriate opportunities for social, emotional, and moral development and success. There is much more to be done in our schools and communities, and in the justice system, to help young people who are at risk of justice involvement become productive adults. Both public safety and justice demand we treat kids as kids and recognize that sanctions like arrest, detention, separation, and incarceration may have their roles in the system but are not the right vehicles for meaningful accountability.
Carol Cichowski is a retired senior executive from the U.S. Department of Education. She is now serving as a citizen member of the Montgomery County Commission on Juvenile Justice and is an active member of the Montgomery County Women’s Democratic Club Advocacy Committee.
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