Cases

In the Matter of K.H.

The San Antonio Court of Appeals held that a Department of Family and Protective Services
(“CPS”) worker did not act in tandem with police to investigate and gather evidence, and, as a
result, no custodial interrogation of the offender occurred, where the CPS worker contacted the
offender, without threat, to request an interview, where the offender’s mother drove him and
his sister to the interview, where the offender’s mother allowed him to be interviewed, where
the CPS worker testified that the purpose of the offender’s visit to her office was to interview
him concerning allegations of sexual abuse made about him and to give the offender a chance
to respond and to find out if the offender was a sexual abuse victim, and where there is no
evidence that the caseworker was in her perception or in reality acting with the police.

To read this opinion, go to: http://www.juvenilelaw.org/CaseSummaries2006/06-1-21B.HTM.

In the Matter of K.H., 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 10810 (Tx. App. 2005).

United States v. David A.

The United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit, affirmed the granting of the government’s
motion to transfer the offender to adult court over the offender’s challenges of:
- his statutory speedy trial rights, where the government's filing of the transfer
motion tolled those rights;
- procedural records requirements, where the government's good faith search for
the juvenile's records satisfied the federal law requirement that a juvenile shall
not be transferred to adult prosecution until any prior juvenile records of such
juvenile have been received by the court;
- the propriety of his mandatory transfer, where the juvenile's prior juvenile
delinquency adjudication met the federal law’s requirement that the juvenile had
been previously “found guilty of an act which if committed by an adult would
have been one of the offenses set forth” by the Federal Juvenile Delinquency
Act; and
- the sufficiency of the evidence against him, where the government showed by a
preponderance of the evidence that the juvenile had a prior juvenile delinquency
adjudication by submitting certified documents that stemmed from that
adjudication, and where the juvenile failed to assert any contradictory evidence.

United States v. David A., 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 2684 (1st Cir. 2006).

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News Articles

Prevention
AN UNHEALTHY RIVALRY
According to unpublished data in a study published last year in Child Maltreatment, 35 percent
of the more than 2000 children surveyed had been “hit or attacked” by a sibling, with more
than 20 percent of those attacks comprising repeat attacks and/or involving visible physical
injuries and/or weapons. According to the lead author of the study, Dr. David Finkelhor, the
sibling attacks were of the same frequency regardless of the race and socioeconomic group of
the children. Although studies that examine sibling abuse are rare, those that do exist reveal
that such abuse can have a strong negative effect on the victim sibling, one that can last into
adulthood. Unpublished data from the aforementioned study suggests that victim siblings ages
2 to 9 are twice as likely as other children their age to experience sleeplessness, crying spells,
a fear of the dark, thoughts of suicide, and other symptoms of trauma, anxiety and depression.
In another study, interviews with adults who suffered sibling abuse as children brought forth
anecdotal evidence of this abuse leading to confrontation avoidance and nervousness about
physical intimidation.

Katy Butler, “Beyond Rivalry, a Hidden World of Sibling Violence,” The New York Times,
February 28, 2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/health/28sibl.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print&oref=slogi
n&oref=slogin.

To access the study (payment required), go to:

http://cmx.sagepub.com/cgi/search?sortspec=relevance&author1=&fulltext=%22hit+or+attac
ked%22+and+sibling&pubdate_year=2005&volume=&firstpage=.

A DEADLY TRANSITION
According to gang experts, a youth who wants to leave a gang is often “jumped-out” of a
gang; that is, he is administered a beating, with his consent, by a group of members of the
gang. However, if said youth brings members of a rival gang to his jumping-out, this is
considered disrespectful. Perhaps that is why, when a California youth brought two friends to
his jumping-out, friends that were members of the gang he was about to join, those friends
were fatally shot when they tried to intervene in the ritual beating. Gang experts say that
while switching gangs and jumping-out is common, the beating rarely ends in fatal violence.

Stacia Glenn, “Rival Gang Violence Kills Two in ‘Jump-Out,’” The San Bernadino Sun, February
14, 2006, http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3507022.
Intervention

TAKING STEPS
In the past month, United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced two
significant youth-related initiatives. Through Project Safe Childhood, federal, state, and local
law enforcement officials will partner to protect children who use the Internet. These officials
will increase and coordinate their efforts to investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases,
and to train their colleagues, along with the community, about these cases and the problem of
online sexual predators. The new Anti-Gang Initiative, part of Project Safe Neighborhoods,
brings with it funding that will be used to initiate collaboration among all levels of law
enforcement, to increase federal firearms prosecutions, and to fund community prevention
efforts.

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“Attorney General Gonzales Announces Project Safe Child Initiative,” OJJDP website, February
21, 2006, http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/.

“Attorney General Gonzales Unveils Plan to Combat Gang Violence,” OJJDP website, February
27, 2006, http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/.

A WELCOME INVASION
In the early 1990’s, Boston clergy and police responded to a surge in youth violence with
Operation Ceasefire, an initiative that included, among other activities, the creation of the
Boston TenPoint Coalition, a group of churches and faith-based organizations created to
respond to this violence. Now, that coalition is again collaborating with Boston police in the
hopes that a new initiative will repeat the success of Operation Ceasefire in stopping another
wave of youth violence. The TenPoint Coalition has launched a drive to recruit, train, and
deploy 1000 volunteers, who will visit the neighborhoods and homes where at-risk youth live,
and will mentor these youth. Meanwhile, other volunteers will lobby politicians for more state
funding for youth work and for witness protection. One of the areas that neighborhood
volunteers will try to address is reentry, as current programs in Boston reach less than 10
percent of the offenders reentering these communities. The volunteers will also focus on
creating and strengthening relationships with residents of these neighborhoods in the hopes of
increasing public trust in police, and effecting more identifications and arrests of violent crime
suspects.

Charles A. Radin, “Ministers Launch Drive to Combat Youth Crime,” The Boston Globe,
February 9, 2006,
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/09/ministers_launch_driv
e_to_combat_youth_crime/.

Prosecution
YES, BUT WHAT IS NINE-TENTHS OF POSSESSION?
In New Hampshire and a handful of other states, a minor can be arrested for “internal
possession” of alcohol, “physical indicia of consumption of alcohol,” or “possession by
consumption;” that is, where there is only evidence that the minor has drinks in his or her
system. The problems with proving the violation of more common laws against the possession
and consumption of alcohol – as minors often drop their drinks and run at the first sight of
police – has, many argue, created the need for a law where police need only prove that a
minor is intoxicated, and not how or when that intoxication occurred. In New Hampshire,
internal possession violations, which comprise about half of the state’s underage-alcohol
possession cases, are on the same level as traffic violations; however, they bring with them a
$300 fine and the potential loss of a driver’s license. New Hampshire legislators are trying to
reduce the level of evidence required for an internal possession charge from that of evidence of
intoxication to merely that of any consumption. Critics of such laws argue that shaping the
definition of “possession” to encompass something that a police officer cannot see is to take
the definition too far, and that a law like New Hampshire’s that focuses (for now) on
intoxication poses problems, because while getting drunk is voluntary, being drunk, some
contend, is not.

David A. Fahrenthold, “In N.H., a Beer in the Belly Can Get Youths Arrested,” The Washington
Post, February 5, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020400821_pf.html.

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NO MORE CHANCES…
Lionel Tate was the youngest person in the United States sentenced to life without parole.
After being convicted of first degree murder for killing his 6-year-old playmate at age 12, he
was released and, under a plea agreement, given probation when an appeals court overturned
his conviction because he was not given a competency hearing before or during the trial.
Since his release, Tate has been given five additional years of probation for being caught with
a knife. Now, Tate has pled guilty to armed robbery after an incident last May in which,
according to “overwhelming” evidence (his attorney says), he pulled a gun on a pizza delivery
man. Because of this new plea bargain, Tate has been spared from a potential life sentence
for violating his original probation, and could get 10 to 30 years in prison at his sentencing
hearing in April.

“Second Chance Ends with Guilty Plea,” CNN website, March 1, 2006,
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/01/lionel.tate.ap/index.html.

Reports/Guides
Updates to OJJDP’s Statistical Briefing Book
OJJDP announces updates to the data analysis tools in its Statistical Briefing Book. The data
analysis tools to which OJJDP has made updates are the following:
- Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement Databook, which provides access
to national and state data that detail the characteristics of juvenile offenders in
residential placement facilities;
- Easy Access to the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports: 1980-2003, which
provides access to more than 20 years of national and state data that detail
the characteristics of homicide victims and offenders; and
- Easy Access to Juvenile Populations: 1990-2004, which provides access to 15
years of national, state, and county population data.

To access the OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book, go to: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/.

“How the Justice System Responds to Juvenile Victims: A

Comprehensive Model”
This bulletin, part of OJJDP’s Crimes Against Children series and written by, among others, Dr.
David Finkelhor (of the sibling violence study discussed above), introduces the idea that a
juvenile victim justice system exists. It outlines the significant elements of such a system and
explains how cases move through it. To read this bulletin, go to:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/210951.pdf.

“Detention Reform and Girls – Challenges and Solutions”

This latest volume in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Pathways to Detention Reform includes
chapters on girls’ needs, systemic issues, promising practices and gender bias, among other
subjects. To access this report, go to:
http://www.aecf.org/publications/data/jdai_pathways_girls.pdf.

Upcoming Events:
NJJPC Trainings and Conferences

• National Conference on Juvenile Justice, Denver, Colorado, March 26-29, 2006.

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• Tough Cases: Advanced Training for Juvenile Court Prosecutors, Denver, Colorado,
March 26-27, 2006.
• Performance Measures for the Juvenile Justice System, Denver, Colorado, March 25,
2006.
• JumpStart: Training for Newly Assigned Juvenile Prosecutors, Newport, Rhode Island,
April 26-28, 2006.
• Prosecutorial Leadership with Scarce Resources: Policy Innovation, Accountability, and
Performance Measures for Juvenile Justice Systems, Washington, D.C. Metro Area,
September 2006.

For more information on NJJPC training events go to: http://www.ndaa-

apri.org/education/ndaa/juvenile_justice_training_schedule.html.

Additional Trainings and Conferences

• The Office of National Drug Control Policy is sponsoring regional summits on student drug
testing. The remaining summits are as follows: Falls Church, Virginia, March 14, and
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 25. To access information and register online, go to:
http://www.ondcp.gov/news/press05/122805.html. There is no fee to attend the
summits.
• Youth Crime Watch of America: “National Youth Crime Prevention Conference and
International Forum,” Ogden, Utah, March 20-23, 2006. To access information and
register online, go to: http://www.ycwa.org/youthcon/index.html.
• National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ): “Enhancing Judicial Skills in
Domestic Violence Cases.” Austin, Texas, April 2-5, 2006. To access information and
register online, go to: http://www.ncjfcj.org/content/view/285/378/.
• NCJFCJ: “Graduated Sanctions in Juvenile Justice: A National Training,” May 7-10, 2006,
Las Vegas, Nevada. To access information and register online,
http://www.ncjfcj.org/content/view/285/378/.
• NCJFCJ, Permanency Planning for Children Department (PPCD): “Child Abuse and Neglect
Institute: The Role of the Judge.” Reno, Nevada, June 4-8, 2006. To access information
and register online, go to: http://www.ncjfcj.org/content/view/285/378/.
• NCJFCJ: 69th Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 16-19, 2006. To access
more information, go to: http://www.ncjfcj.org/content/view/285/378/.

This information is offered for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. This project
was supported by Award No. 2002-MU-MU-0003 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions expressed in
this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position
of the United States Department of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, the National District Attorneys Association, or the American Prosecutors Research
Institute.