ABSTRACT
Children are labeled as criminals, forced to bear humiliating degradation, and are exposed to trauma that, to most Americans, is simply unimaginable. Recent efforts by the United States Department of Justice amplify the critical need for well-qualified juvenile defenders. Children burdened with a juvenile court adjudication can lose access to their local school, higher education, professional licenses, military service, housing, and other future opportunities. Implicit and explicit biases influence the experiences and judgment of every person in the juvenile justice system, from law enforcement officers' decisions to intervene and arrest, to prosecutors' decisions to charge, to judges' decisions to detain, adjudicate, and sentence. The future of the juvenile defense community lies in the intersectionality of our roles as civil rights lawyers and juvenile defense lawyers. Over the past five decades, the legal community has witnessed the birth of the juvenile defender in tandem with the proliferation of laws and policies outlawing adolescence.
