Just Addressing Judicial Biases Against Teenagers of Color

In this special release episode, Just Science sat down with Kristin Henning, Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown Law and Author of The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth, to discuss the biases that exist in the American criminal legal system, which disproportionally and negatively impact teenagers of color. Decades of developmental psychology research supports that adolescence is a period marked by risk-taking behaviors, experimentation, and susceptibility to peer influence. While these features of adolescence are normal for all teenagers, teenagers of color are disproportionately punished by the American criminal legal system for behaviors that are developmentally appropriate. Listen along as Professor Henning describes what typical adolescent behavior looks like, the depiction of adolescence and race in the media, and the movement to better inform criminal legal system practitioners about this unique developmental period. This episode is funded by RTI International’s Transformative Research Unit for Equity and the Justice Practice Area. Some content in this podcast may be considered sensitive and may evoke emotional responses or may not be appropriate for younger audiences.