#juvenile legal system

[mtsu4u]

Vincent Schiraldi

SCHIRALDI: We had a simultaneous, very substantial reduction in the number of kids who are locked up, 70% from 2000 to 2020. And we had about an 80-plus percent decline in arrests of juveniles during that period of time. So it was kind of a virtuous cycle - fewer kids getting arrested, fewer kids getting locked up and learning. Then we had this pandemic. Kids were disrupted from schools. Parents were losing their jobs. Mental health issues were sort of increasing for both the young people and their families and their neighborhoods. People started to arm themselves in those neighborhoods, mostly adults but sometimes kids. And when you have a lot of people with a lot of frustration, with a lot of guns in their pockets, you stop having fistfights, and you start having shootouts.

[reportwire]

Man and 15-year-old are arrested in shooting that wounded 9 children at Georgia gas station | CNN

CNN  —  Two people have been arrested in the shooting that wounded nine children at a Columbus, Georgia, gas station earlier this month, police announced Friday. The suspects were identified as 35-year-old D’Angelo Robinson, Sr., and an unnamed 15-year-old male, who were both taken into custody on aggravated assault charges, according to a release from the Columbus Police Department. The…

[reasonsforhope]

"Research on a police diversion program implemented in 2014 shows a striking 91% reduction in in-school arrests over less than 10 years.

Across the United States, arrest rates for young people under age 18 have been declining for decades. However, the proportion of youth arrests associated with school incidents has increased.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, K–12 schools referred nearly 230,000 students to law enforcement during the school year that began in 2017. These referrals and the 54,321 reported school-based arrests that same year were mostly for minor misbehavior like marijuana possession, as opposed to more serious offenses like bringing a gun to school.

School-based arrests are one part of the school-to-prison pipeline, through which students—especially Black and Latine students and those with disabilities—are pushed out of their schools and into the legal system.

Getting caught up in the legal system has been linked to negative health, social, and academic outcomes, as well as increased risk for future arrest.

Given these negative consequences, public agencies in states like Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania have looked for ways to arrest fewer young people in schools. Philadelphia, in particular, has pioneered a successful effort to divert youth from the legal system.

Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program

In Philadelphia, police department leaders recognized that the city’s school district was its largest source of referrals for youth arrests. To address this issue, then–Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel developed and implemented a school-based, pre-arrest diversion initiative in partnership with the school district and the city’s department of human services. The program is called the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program, and it officially launched in May 2014.

Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker named Bethel as her new police commissioner on Nov. 22, 2023.

Since the diversion program began, when police are called to schools in the city for offenses like marijuana possession or disorderly conduct, they cannot arrest the student involved if that student has no pending court case or history of adjudication. In juvenile court, an adjudication is similar to a conviction in criminal court.

Instead of being arrested, the diverted student remains in school, and school personnel decide how to respond to their behavior. For example, they might speak with the student, schedule a meeting with a parent, or suspend the student.

A social worker from the city also contacts the student’s family to arrange a home visit, where they assess youth and family needs. Then, the social worker makes referrals to no-cost community-based services. The student and their family choose whether to attend.

Our team—the Juvenile Justice Research and Reform Lab at Drexel University—evaluated the effectiveness of the diversion program as independent researchers not affiliated with the police department or school district. We published four research articles describing various ways the diversion program affected students, schools, and costs to the city.

Arrests Dropped

In our evaluation of the diversion program’s first five years, we reported that the annual number of school-based arrests in Philadelphia decreased by 84%: from nearly 1,600 in the school year beginning in 2013 to just 251 arrests in the school year beginning in 2018.

Since then, school district data indicates the annual number of school-based arrests in Philadelphia has continued to decline—dropping to just 147 arrests in the school year that began in 2022. That’s a 91% reduction from the year before the program started.

We also investigated the number of serious behavioral incidents recorded in the school district in the program’s first five years. Those fell as well, suggesting that the diversion program effectively reduced school-based arrests without compromising school safety.

Additionally, data showed that city social workers successfully contacted the families of 74% of students diverted through the program during its first five years. Nearly 90% of these families accepted at least one referral to community-based programming, which includes services like academic support, job skill development, and behavioral health counseling...

Long-Term Outcomes

To evaluate a longer follow-up period, we compared the 427 students diverted in the program’s first year to the group of 531 students arrested before the program began. Results showed arrested students were significantly more likely to be arrested again in the following five years...

Finally, a cost-benefit analysis revealed that the program saves taxpayers millions of dollars.

Based on its success in Philadelphia, several other cities and counties across Pennsylvania have begun replicating the Police School Diversion Program. These efforts could further contribute to a nationwide movement to safely keep kids in their communities and out of the legal system."

-via Yes! Magazine, December 5, 2023

[rboooks]

DC x DP: The Adoptive Son

Danny Fenton gets lost in the Infinite Releams and without the Infinite Map, he has no hope finding his way home.

After wandering for weeks, he quickly realizes his human side is dying from lack of food and stress. With a heavy heart, he crashes lands in a new world, desperate for rest.

A new world that was seemed to behind in terms of technology. But he's not afraid of helping the world catch up if it means finding a way home.

He crashed in the middle of nowhere forest and after three days of walking by foot- too worn out to fly- he comes across Gotham.

Taking a page out of Vlad's book- as much as it makes him feel sick- he possesses people to get himself set up in the new world. He needs to find somewhere with enough money that he can build a S.O.S for his friends to find him.

And he needs resources to survive.

He finds a wealthy family who is so invested in breaking each other apart they didn't notice their sudden ease in wanting to adopt Danny.

Seemingly overnight, the Crowne family went from slowly collapsing to once more being at the top due to their adopted son Danny Crowne's genius mind. Despite his young age, his adoptive father allowed him to turn the family business from fashion design to medical and technical advances.

At age fourteen he sat within the board meetings slowly but surely taking over and raising the company's stocks and power.

They developed the first heart pumps, made leaps and bounds in cancer treatment, and created software and computer programs that and their prosthetics were the most advanced in the world.

There were rumors that the head design for all engineering projects- including the prosthetics- were all done by Danny Crowne. They were never confirmed.

Even business deals done by the Crownes were suspiciously so far in their favor many believed they were making deals with the multiple families of Gotham's underbelly.

That was also never proven.

Despite all the whispers about him, Danny Crowne was considered one of the brightest minds in Gotham. Everyone who spoke to him claimed he was a soft-spoken gentleman and was even compared to royalty from his regal composition.

Personally, Bruce has always had a bad feeling about Danny Crowne. He knows the boy is off in some way, all his Instincts scream danger when he's around.

At first, he was ecstatic to hear the Crownes had also adopted an orphan from a poor background. It had been a few years after he had gotten his ward, Dick. Despite it being five years since he first accepted Dick into his home, his ward had not made any friends besides Barbara Gordon. None of the elite children gave Dick the time of day pass making passive aggressive comments about him.

Then the news of Danny Crowne broke, and everyone knew he had practically been picked off the streets after the CPS had forced him into the juvenile hall as the only place that had space for him.

Just like Dick.

He had hoped that a similar past would help the two boys bond. He had tried pushing Dick into speaking to Danny, and had gone out of his way to personally invite the young man to a party he threw for all of Dicks classmates.

The first thing Danny Crowne did upon arriving at his house was step away from the crowd and study Bruce's home wiring. Dick later told him Danny made him feel strange, like the other boy would be one the loons they stopped during the night.

Bruce, stop pushing for their friendship.

Time moved on, but Crownes only grew in power, and by the time he took in Jason, Danny Crowne inherited his family assets after his adoptive parents mysterious deaths.

They began to look into Danny after Nightwing had discovered a trail of dangerous experiments from shell companies that all led back to Crowne Co. Jason also mentioned that a lot of street kids disappeared after Danny Crowne had turn his sights on them with a new charity program his company ran.

No one knew what happened to the kids and no one in the legal system seemed to care.

Bruce thought about the Crownes rise to wealth and felt sick. Had Danny been running a trafficking ring since his adoption? Had that escaped Batman's notice for four years?

Despite the fact they were still at eachother throats, both Bruce and Dick agreed to work togther to bring Danny Crowne down. How?

Simple.

Danny Crowne was openly bisexual and, according to Jason, who was half-raised by working girls, his eyes always followed Dick around the room.

Operation Honey Pot was a go.

(Danny didn't mean to stay here for four years but had built himself a home, and no natural portals were opening. He figured he could secretly construct his while helping abused kids find safe ways out of the city and start new lives. Technically illegal, no one had batted an eye when the kids vanished, so he figured getting them somewhere safe was more important. Indeed Batman had better things to do than track down kids in better foster homes. He test-ran the homes himself before placing the children. Yes, overshadowing made him feel bad, but he rather experienced the house before overshadowing the social workers into legalizing the stay under new names. He was sick of them sticking kids in juvenile halls just cause other foster homes were "out of jurisdiction".

At least his charities helped the age out kids succeed in life.

Now why was handsome Dick Grayson winking at him??? Gosh, that made him more nervous than all the lessons Clockwork forced him to take back when he was training to take the Ghost Throne. The classes helped him become one of the best CEO in the world, but they were also the reason he got into this whole mess to begin with. At least he looked regal when he spoke. )

( Part 2 ) (part 3)

[writingwithcolor]

Diversity Win: Is "Crazy Rich" POC Representation Necessarily Empowering?

sodapopsculptor asked:

I’m writing a story with two sets of protagonists: A trio with a Black girl, a Latino, and a Vietnamese-American boy who all come from middle-upper class to ridiculously rich families, and a pair of white working-middle class sisters. They’re all heroes of this story. I’ve seen way too many rich white people and poor poc people in fiction, and I’m kinda getting sick of it, but I’m worried that by having the poc kids be rich and the white girls not so much, I’ll be reinforcing the idea that poc somehow rule the world. The only time the rich kids use their status as leverage is when the Asian threatens to sic his cop dad on a bully (race unstated but I imagined him as white) picking on a freshman, and during the Black girl’s birthday party, when she pays the biggest jock there fifty bucks (And later says offhandedly that it was just what she had in her pocket) to chase off a creep hitting on her.

OP, have you ever seen the “diversity win!” meme before?

I understand that your motivation for these narrative choices is to give POC a chance, if you will, to be the rich characters. But it is evident from this ask that you have not asked yourself what this entails. I want to ask you to critically examine the race and class intersections you’re creating here, as well as these kids’ roles in oppressive systems.

You explain that these rich POC are heroes and only have righteous reasons for leveraging their power.

But is your Black girl character aware of the potential disciplinary and/or legal consequences her jock accomplice might face while she has the resources to keep her hands clean? Are you?

Is your Asian character aware of how much of an abuse of power it is to “sic” a cop on someone, and the sheer amount of harm a criminal record or incarceration does to a juvenile with behavior issues? Are you?

So you want to put POC in positions of power for #representation.

Does it resonate with the group you’re representing?

Do you research and portray the unique ways race, ethnicity, class, and majority vs. minority status come together?

Or are you putting these characters in oppressive hegemonic roles for the sake of a power fantasy, on behalf of a group you're not even in?

To your question, you're not reinforcing the idea that "POC rule the world" because such a generalized belief does not exist. Instead, you're reinforcing:

The idea that society has “winners” and “losers.”

The idea that the problem with disproportionately powerful people is the lack of “equal opportunity” as opposed to the power imbalance to begin with.

The idea that those in oppressive positions of power need only have the right intentions to justify their use of it.

To be clear: that is not to say that you can't have jerk aristocrat billionaire millionaire crazy rich POC. Evil or mean rich characters are fun! I have some myself! You can even have rich characters who are gentle-hearted and well-intentioned, but you have to know the ways in which they’re privileged and decide how aware of that your characters are. That’s no problem.

But if you think that wealthy and powerful POC would have the same values and priorities as their poorer counterparts, you’re deluding yourself. There’s a reason why the quote “power corrupts” exists. There’s a reason why no matter where you look on the globe, there are historical dictators and tyrants.

If you want bratty rich POC who lack regard for the consequences of their actions, because you want bratty rich characters, great! If you want them because it would be uplifting or empowering representation? You’re doing it for the wrong reason.

~ Rina

I fully agree with Rina, and truly want to emphasize the last paragraph.

If you want bratty rich POC who lack regard for the consequences of their actions, because you want bratty rich characters, great! If you want them because it would be uplifting or empowering representation? You’re doing it for the wrong reason.

I don't think you need to aim to subvert or purposely make all the BIPOC rich and powerful and the white people poor and suffering. Add diversity and include upper class rich and class privileged BIPOC, sure thing! And you can avoid your fears of intentional subversion message by including rich and powerful white characters as well, even if they're not the focus of your story. Just their existence helps. You could also include middle-class characters of Color as well.

More reading: Black in upper-class society

~Mod Colette

[a-d-nox]

web of wyrd: what kind of trauma you could have experienced in childhood

tw: mentions of childhood trauma triggers

this orb is in the child zone of the chart. while the first orb is your public persona / the mask you wear in public due to expectations others have of you starting from a young age, this third orb (the sum of the mask and the true self) tells the story of what you experienced as a kid to make you who you are. this is the doorway between what others think you are like because of how you come off and who you truly are.

your lack of a number correlated with an experience listed below does not mean to minimize your experience with the topics (e.g., abuse, familial alcoholism, neglect, etc.) these are simply my observations (also observations are not destined to be true, they are simply possibilities / increased odds).

6 - lovers

covert incest: the reliance a parent has on their child for emotional needs that an adult relationship would provide (this is the mental and emotional aspects of an adult relationship NOT the physical)

7 - chariot

constant moving around which created a level of detachment in the world around you

9 - hermit

could have been in a foster care system which made you feel alone and unwanted

constantly distance from parents - maybe parents were constantly away on business or were otherwise occupied so you were alone and felt neglected by them

11 - justice

a messy divorce OR finding yourself in the midst of legal battles

troubled youth - perhaps experience with law enforcement / juvenile justice systems

13 - death

loss or near loss be it of a family member or yourself

15 - devil

dealing with a toxic household

substance abuse issues in direct family that effects you

controlling parents

physical or mental abuse

16 - tower

car accident, house fire, medical emergency, etc that forever changed your life

17 - star

having an illness that effects your ability to just be a kid

18 - moon

constant lies and manipulation experienced by you from your parental figure(s)

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© a-d-nox 2024 all rights reserved

[starry-bi-sky]

DPXDC Idea: Mother of Monsters Dan(yal)

Specifically Fem!Dan because I made this in mind with my Fem Danyal Au bUT. The best part about Dan is that I get to play dress up with her, and Fem Dark Dany is gonna go by Layal (pronounced lae-el) because it means "the nights" and it sounds similar to Danyal, and I think she'd choose that name to mock Dany. ANYWAYS

Mother of Monsters Danyal. She may be evil but she's an Al Ghul at her core (even with vlad's soul merged with hers - however, considering that Layal looks and sounds like Dany, she considers that soul to be the more dominant one.) and loves animals. And she might be heartless, but she adores the monsters of the infinite realms.

Mother of Monsters Layal who hates everyone but utterly dotes and adores on every manner of beast she comes across. Stealing the eggs and infant young beasts of the Infinite Realms to raise as her own because she wanted them. Her own island full of monsters, a monstrous menagerie of her own. She steals most often from poachers or exotic pet keepers and other menageries -- the full grown beasties can keep their young.

And with every monster she raises, she can shapeshift their features onto herself, allowing her to change her shape from humanish to any matter of monster or hybrid creature. She calls herself their mother, and them her children. Her precious little babies, capable of incredible mass destruction and mayhem.

From little griffins the size of kittens, to stymphalian vulture chicks, and leviathan young hatching from eggs the size of her pinkie, to creatures native of the ghost zone that didn't even have names in the living realm. There really wasn't a limit to what or who she would take in and she didn't limit herself to any form of mythology. If they were beasts and they were unwanted, she wanted them. And as such, amassed her own mini army of "children" willing to listen to her any command.

Earth doesn't know what hit it when she attacks them.

There are many monstrous forms she could take on, the first one I've thought of is a combination of various serpentine/reptilian features. The body of a naga -- her lower half long and serpentine, her upper still human -- with spiked fins connecting from the bottom of her arms to her sides, ever seen Sinbad where Eris goes "you might have seen my likeness on the temple walls" and her arms do that fin thingy? Same concept. Her hands are webbed and taloned, perfect for slicing through the skin of the living, and her teeth are needle-sharp and shark like. Her hair can either be spiny and feathery-like like the spines of a lionfish, or frilled like a frilled-neck lizard. It's perfect for dealing and doting on her reptilian and amphibian-inclined darlings.

I'm more of a fan of aus where Dan is a sibling of Danny's rather than their kid, so Layal's redemption(..?? probation?) proceeds with her legally becoming Danyal's "twin" sister, who had been lost to the foster system before the Fentons adopted Dany, and was only recently reunited with her. The two of them look so alike that the lie is easy to take root and spread.

Layal is very indignant to the fact that she's now ten years in the past and has to restart her menagerie all over again. Do you know how much blood and sweat went into raising those children? How dare you separate them from their mummy. Although she'll admit she does miss their juvenile years, so she won't mind (too much) needing to raising them again. Dany is helping her retrieve all of them though, dammit.

long story short: epic the musical's "Scylla" has a CHOKEHOLD on me and this is the result of it

Unlike her Dan counterpart, Layal's voice is dancing and sirenic. It's purposely alluring and motherly, in order to lure people into a false sense of security until she feeds them to her "children." Echidna doesn't have shit on her. She almost seems friendly and reasonable, until you get too close and realize it was all an act and she drops it to metaphorically swallow you whole. She's like an anglerfish that way. She and Dany both sound like Scylla from Epic.

[gatheringbones]

[“Intervention by the juvenile system can lead to incarceration—called “secure detention” in the juvenile system. “Every day, girls are securely detained for offenses that would not result in detention for a boy,” Sherman has argued.

While some young people are detained because of the gravity of their offenses, others are held in a misguided attempt to help them. Young people are placed in secure detention to protect them from conflict in the home, danger on the streets, potentially abusive boyfriends, their own impulses, being commercially sexually exploited, and returning to their traffickers. Prosecutors ask for young people to be held, and judges detain them because they see detention as the only way to provide young people with (or force them to accept) services. Young people are detained to ensure that they appear in court—either in their own cases or to testify against those who have harmed them—with the assumption that the legal process will somehow benefit the child. Young people who come into the system as victims of commercial sexual exploitation are often detained by judges who believe that holding them will prevent them from being revictimized, sometimes without evidence that they are actually at risk. In a Baltimore court, for example, an attorney explained that her client had been labeled as trafficked based on unsubstantiated information from a school resource officer; the girl did not understand why she was being described as a prostitute in court.

In their zeal to prevent trafficking, law enforcement officers and judges fail to recognize that involvement in the juvenile system makes young people more vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation. Musto calls this use of detention “carceral protectionism”: “enforcement with a protective bent or carcerality inflicted with care.” Detention in a carceral protectionist world is not always meant as punishment, but instead is seen as a necessary evil intended to benefit young people. “]

leigh goodmark, from imperfect victims: criminalized survivors and the promises of abolition feminism, 2023

[endcant]

save a bastion for queer culture in a famously hateful city

i’ll try to write a shorter and sweeter post about this later, but for now i will just beg at length.

there is a town near me called Murfreesboro where at various points they have banned or attempted to ban public homosexuality, drag, and pride flags. for a time their county’s youth incarceration rate was 48% (contrasted with the rest of the state at 5%) due to corruption in their local courts system. every juvenile case that made it to the wrong judge resulted in the child being sent to jail, because the county commissioner thought it’d be “cool” if the jail was a “profit center” (yes these are his actual words). these are just a few examples but suffice it to say, this is a very difficult place to grow up, especially for LGBT kids.

despite all of this difficulty, the area has a remarkable alternative music scene with a few small venues where queer people and young people who don’t fit in elsewhere can genuinely have fun and feel safe for the night. despite the city’s reputation, queer people in the broader area flock to the town for raves and DIY shows. in this area, music culture is intertwined with queer culture and leftist efforts to a much greater degree than i’m used to as somebody from the middle of california.

i really admire the venues and event organizers that cultivate a safe spaces like this in a place where it is decidedly unsafe for queer people, and where the youth are constantly in danger of having their lives ruined for totally arbitrary reasons.

this is why it breaks my heart that murfreesboro is trying to shut down a venue called The Graveyard Gallery. the graveyard gallery is a place where a ton of events are constantly held for lgbt, furry, and alternative communities. it is one of very few alternative places in the broader nashville area where i have felt really, truly safe and welcome as a person of color.

most recently, The Graveyard Gallery has come under attack for attempting to hold a Trans Day of Visibility punk show, with the apt title “Trans Day of Vengeance”. Conservative media, both local and national, directed the attention of their audiences towards this event, calling it “tone deaf” to have it on easter, and to have it sort-of-kind-of-close-to-but-not-quite-on the anniversary of the shooting in nashville. All of this, of course, ignoring that the date for TDoV was set in 2009, and that this was a small DIY punk show that really bore no threat to anybody. the show had to be canceled because of credible death threats, so it didn’t even happen, but that hasn’t appeased anybody.

in the wake of this, murfreesboro’s fire marshal has suddenly decided that the building is not acceptable for occupancy and it has to close immediately and for the forseeable future. people can claim it’s unrelated, but i’ve known people to have their businesses suddenly declined by fire marshals due to sheer bigotry before, and shitty towns will just use their fire marshal to bankrupt small business owners that they don’t like. i do not speak for the owners of the gallery on this front, but i personally believe that these things are related.

all this is to say, the graveyard gallery needs to raise money for their legal fees over this matter. this venue is very important to a lot of people, and may be even more important now that the city’s music scene is in the crosshairs of massive conservative media companies.

if you can donate please do, and if you can share this, please do that as well.

thank you for taking the time to read my post. i know there’s a lot going on in the world, but music venues are where people here gather, and music venues are often also a place where people organize to make meaningful change and promote causes that i know most of you would approve of. music is at the heart of this community, and the venues are where the music lives.

[xxgoblin-dumplingxx]

ooh love a good lore drop, is there anything more about tequila!reader’s past someone (logan) dredges up??

Logan could only blink at you for a moment. The words you said were in English. Strung together in perfect order. They made perfect sense. But they didn't register.

Sure, you weren't a goody two shoes. You weren't a girl scout. But... How deep were your crime connections? It made the hair on his neck stand up. What did you do? And if he asked would you tell the truth?

"Ask," you sigh, looking more tired than annoyed. "Everyone always does."

"What happened?" Logan asked, folding his arms.

"I turned state's evidence on my dad to cut a deal to be tried as a juvenile after I stole a yacht and about two million dollars from a locked vault," you shrug. "Granted- I was trying to get caugh-"

"Why?" he challenged. "I've seen you get intel for Charles without breaking a sweat."

"I wanted out."

Logan regarded you and watched as you rolled up your sleeves to show off old scars. Deep wounds, cigarette burns, chemical burns, all down your arms and he's willing to bet other places.

"Past, Present, and Future- if I can touch it, I can see it," you tell him." It's pretty handy when it comes to planning a crime. And I cooperated or I paid."

He felt his stomach turn and felt a muscle in his jaw tick.

"When I was 13 it started to get worse in... a lot of ways. And I saw- well. I saw what they had planned for me and I decided to take my chances with the legal system. So I flipped."

"Risky," Logan growled.

"Hellish more like," you shiver, "But at least those girls only think they can hit compared to grown men... To make a long story short, I wound up on Charles' radar and here I am after he 'convinced' everyone to let me out on parole to save the money it would cost to keep my father's men from killing me."

"Sounds about right," he chuckled.

"I owe him a lot," you murmur.

"And that's how you can pick locks and hotwire cars."

"I can do more than that," you snort, "I just don't advertise it."

"Oh yeah?" he grinned.

You raise an eyebrow, "Don't get any ideas, Logan."

"Oh, I have lots of ideas, Princess," he coaxed, "you know me; I like to live dangerously."

"Not all of us have a healing factor-"

"Who said you were gonna need one, Brat?"

[morbidology]

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐰𝐨-𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫-𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐥𝐠𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐭𝐞𝐧-𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫-𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐢𝐦.

On February 12, 1993, James Bulger was with his mother at the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, near Liverpool. In a moment of distraction, James wandered away from his mother’s side. It was then that Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged ten, spotted him. Security camera footage later revealed that the boys had been roaming the shopping center, attempting to lure other children before successfully leading James away.

For two miles, Thompson and Venables walked with James, leading him on a terrifying journey. Witnesses saw the boys and the distressed toddler but assumed they were siblings or that the older boys were looking after him. The journey ended at a railway line near Walton, Liverpool. There, the boys threw paint at James, kicked him, stamped on him, and threw bricks at him. They even put batteries in his mouth before they dropped a 10 kg railway fishplate him. James was then left on the tracks, where he was subsequently hit by a train.

The disappearance of James triggered an extensive search operation. The breakthrough came when CCTV footage from the shopping center was released to the public, showing James being led away by two young boys. This footage was crucial in identifying Thompson and Venables as the suspects.

The arrests of Thompson and Venables shocked the nation. The idea that two ten-year-old boys could commit such a heinous crime was incomprehensible to many. During their trial, it was revealed that the boys had planned the abduction and had even attempted to kidnap another child earlier that day. The prosecution presented compelling evidence of the boys’ culpability, including their detailed confessions and forensic evidence linking them to the crime scene.

The trial of Thompson and Venables took place at Preston Crown Court in November 1993. Both boys were found guilty of murder, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history. They were sentenced to indefinite detention, with a minimum term suggested by the trial judge. This sentence sparked a fierce debate about the appropriate punishment for juvenile offenders and the capacity for rehabilitation.

The murder of James Bulger had a profound impact on the British public and legal system. The case led to a re-evaluation of how young offenders are treated within the criminal justice system. The intense media coverage and public outrage underscored the need for better child protection measures and more comprehensive support for families and communities.

Thompson and Venables were released on lifelong license in 2001, after serving eight years in detention. They were given new identities to protect them from public retribution. However, Jon Venables later returned to prison on several occasions for various offenses, reigniting public debate over the effectiveness of his rehabilitation.

[mtsu4u]

the bill will "place the burden on the courts to prove that families are able to pay the fees. It also removes the obligation to pay for a public defender. The new law additionally applies to some services for youth in the custody of the state’s Department of Child Services."

[hisaribi]

reverse robins au where the ages are reversed but not the order of adoption

Dick

He was sorta meant to be the first, there's no escaping that. Eight years old kid who came to Gotham with whole family both blood and performance-related to stay here all alone.

Drakes were sort of benefactors of Haly's circus (not exactly connected to the Court of Owls, just really adoring Graysons in all their generations, which stretched for century already), Tim (the same age difference as between canon Tim and Damian, so he's 15) thought it was sort of awkward and the whole circus thing seemed somewhat childish to him, till he met the bundle of energy and constant movement Dick, who told him with conviction that he's gonna do this cool quadruple somersault just for Tim and it's actually the first time he does it on stage (which is a lie and his elder cousin who was about the same age as Tim later told Dick that lying isn't good, and dick just shrugs, because he does that in every town they stay in, and says that that's something to make a person excited for the show and not be bored the whole time, and Tim looked seconds away from pulling his phone and browsing it).

Then Graysons fell, the only reason Drakes didn't adopt him was because the Court sort of made Dick disappear, logged in under the wrong name into the system, so it would be easier to snitch him for making a Talon, and it wasn't like Drakes would search for him in juvenile detention center first. They even sort of assumed he moved with Haly's, but when they learned that he didn't, well, they were searching for him. But maybe more in a sense that he was a status possession, the last acrobat from a formidable family, such precious thing can't go to waste

Cue Dick running around the city trying to find Zucco and stumbling upon Batman, who, as Bruce Wayne, knew that Drakes were searching for him. He sort of wanted to just tell them where Dick was, but the kid was insistant on killing the person who murderd his whole family, and the kid was running around in yellow oversized hoodie that had been in possession of too many children before him, green shorts and sneakers, with way too much ease jumping from roof to roof, and something like black mask painted over his face. The kid wasn't going to stop, he was going to get himself killed before Drakes get to him, if anything, he would run away again, from them. And still get himself killed.

So he helped Dick get to Zucco, and Dick decided he needed to be taken to the prison and not murdered, even though before he told Batman that he would kill this man and go to jail for his crimes, or actually now he would deserve the place at juvenile.

The worst thing was that he wanted now to bring justice to other criminals, to catch them, ans well, this was how he became the ward of Bruce Wayne, because having him close both as civilian and vigilante was better than having to explain to whoever decided to adopt him why the kid was bruised and escaping home at night. At the age he was meant for just learning the math.

He actually was home-schooled. just like most children in the circus, only coming to some school to pass tests and exams and checks, and because of that he was a weird mix of bored in class while having troubles to concentrate, so he sort of skipped a few grades, because otherwise he would be too bored (Bruce wasn't really great at being aware that he needed school more for socialization and not knowledge and nobody willed to tell Bruce no as he would just pay for the better equipment for his kid, but oh well).

Barbara

is here too, she's eighteen and starts the whole batgirl thing, and I don't feel like reversing her age for any of that. She's so annoyed at Dick and at Batman for allowing a child to come to fight crime, like she had a decency to wait till she was legally adult, thank you very much, what do you mean you brought a literal child to the field. She does learn that it was hard to stop Dick from running around, but well, she grew fond of him, in a very elder sister exasperated way. She has her own canon thing that barely gets connected to whatever dynamic duo is doing so good for her.

So Dick was Robin, running around, being the hope and all that, till that Two-Face thing, where Dick felt sort of responsible for the death of the judge and also beaten to half-death by goons. He was actually about ten at that time so for two years prior he managed to walk everything off.

And while alone and worried Bruce was running around and came to know

Jason

He's fourteen, but too malnutritioned to look this way, usually kids on crime alley already come to the life of crime by that time even join gangs, and Jason went around to steal Batmobile's tires. He ended up not being adopted but taken into Ma Gunn's School for Boys, to not get logged into social services (and B still tries to learn who the hell put Dick under different name to the juvenile, wonders how many kids get lost in the system and outside of them in goddamn Gotham), ends up uncovering criminal plots in there and later adopted by Bruce (Dick fought hard to stay as a ward and not be adopted and yet he became annoyed at B choosing to adopt Jayson even though it was a different thing altogether).

Also Jason has to witness Dick and Bruce constantly arguing, because Bruce benched Dick after what happened with Two-Face, and then was so not nice to give Robin mantle to Jason and he was confused especially because he believed it was something Bruce created, because nobody uses words in this family yet. Dick still teaches Jason about acrobatics and moving over the city, because he doesn't want the kid to fall. And Jason teaches Dick about mechanics and all that. He cared about younger kids on streets after all.

Also both of them think that being with each other is babysitting another one, and Bruce just allows it and plays into that because well they do babysit each other. Babs still technically babysits both of them and has her own life without these meddling kids.

Around this time wild

Stephanie

appears in her whole sixteen years old glory to deal with her dad's bullshit. Why not Tim I see you asking, well, Tim only appeared because B needed Robin after Jason's death, and as right now their family is somewhat fine he doesn't feel like he needs to intervene, even though he still stalks Dick because he learned his identity. He is worried though, and thinks maybe as soon as he's old enough he will intervene, but right now our focus is Steph.

She basically has her canon-type of run, just also is stuck with babysitting Dick, and Jason acts like I'm too old for you to babysit me we're almost the same age. Dick usually had braincells when they meet, he's also the one to make sure Steph was getting trained by Babs, even though she did run as Robin.

Also you probably guessed by now who's my favorite character is.

Anyway, Dick's there, still getting elder sister syndrome while being the youngest because he's overcompetent and has been working and having experience since before he learned how to walk, and everyone do begrudgingly accept he's experienced and can teach and even lead them.

Then two things happen at once, and wasn't that a very chaotic year. Jason dies to Jocker, Steph dies and starts the gang-war, which leads t sorta no man's land and a lockdown, and the appearance of

Cassandra

She's a year younger than Jason, so she's fifteen, just like he was, when he appeared. If you lost your count, it's fine, Dick just turned eleven and isn't happy about the bullshit that's happening.

She's more adopted by Dick who's elder sister magnet, but they aren't greatest together. She takes on Batgirl mantle while Barbara is absent, not ready for her own thing yet.

Also about this time

Tim

eighteen stays in Gotham to well make sure Batman and Robin don't die, as Gotham will need them the most, when the lockdown is lifted. Also Babs is in senate now, and she was so done after the lockdown news and officer Gordon just deciding not to leave and all Bats being inside and Jason just dying and Steph being dead and she's very vicious.

Tim also did take some trainings, because well, he wasn't suicidal and would take on the role he could as a protector in case he's needed, so ye. Wild Red Robin emerges. It's openly a nod to Dick while he's like aware why he used these colors and how he turned his mind to make everyone who wore it a family, despite the fact he was so angry at Bruce for handling it to anyone without even asking. Also Dick's unhealthy coping mechanisms go brr.

So yes, they deal with the raging bullshit that the gang war and also the whole lockdown is lifted and noone to pacify actually because bats dealt with this. Dick does or doesn't beat Joker to death and only didn't kill him because Batman saved him as Dick was way too young end devastated to become the killer. Tim stays as Red Robin, both his parents are still alive at that point. Babs and Cass share Batgirl when Babs comes back and decides that politics sucks and she didn't have it in her to deal with all that rat races even though she knew she should've been able to.

Almost a year is relatively calm, they learn how to work as a team, Dick starts his rebellious phase and runs away forms teen titans, still stays in Gotham most of the time, but well, he craves his place outside of it.

Hello

Damian

You might ask me, but hisa, you didn't say a thing about Bruce's age, how can he have a son who's in his late twenties? Amd my answer is

idk

Flashpoint, alternative universe, time travel, take your pick, but suddenly Bruce has a son who's adult and competent and an assassin and actually helped his mother to upstage and replace Ra's as a leader of the League and didn't allow him to take his body and all that.

He's also unaware of Jason being in Talia's hands at the moment, because he sort of killed Ra's, threw the league on Talia and rode to the sunset, well, to Gotham. He wanted to see what kind of a man his father was, was he worthy, was his conquest going, did Damian want to take this legacy.

He also looked at Cass and Dick and asked Bruce why he didn't really want him, he had two kids running along with him that were trained to be assassins (he didn't explain who they were, and while B knew of Cass, he didn't know who was the second)

Dick bit and scratched him as soon as he saw him (to get his DNA for the test, thank you very much), and they had a rought start, both because Bruce was going through what do you mean I have an adult son that's almost my age, what do you mean you're an assassin, we have a no kill rule here and you will follow it, please don't agree with Poison Ivy, I know both of you are eco-terrorists, but please. Why the hell do we have a Batcow now. Goliath... what.

And then Bruce dies (gets lost in a time stream), barely a year after Damian comes to Gotham. If you noted the lack of Red Hood, fear not, that's when he appears. To take Batman's mantle and his means of justice (smth like that thing he threw while impersonating Nightwing).

Cass took on the cowl because she had the same things Bruce believed in and Tim sort of sided with her (Babs most likely became an Oracle about that time, and Steph run off to do her own thing with Birds of Prey, but they'd also support her, Tim also went with more Robin colored thing, and actually you know what, he's probably out searching for Bruce, because that's funny). Red Hood Batman is all alone but well he's still the biggest he's also eighteen and do you have any idea how annoying eighteen years old who believe they're right and correct are, because I was this sort of eighteen years old.

Damian takes on the cowl because that's his Legacy, and Dick drags himself with him because BATMAN DOESN'T KILL DON'T YOU DARE YOU VAMPIRE BATMAN though I'm sure Dick appreciated the lack of the cape and the existence of a high collar. So yes, thirteen years old still Robin who doesn't want to ever become Batman having to run around trying to put a collar on three Batmans while trying to make sure the city doesn't fall through cracks and let the boy rest.

Also at that goddamn time

Duke

takes off, also as hero, because the city did feel the lack of batman, and instead we're robins somthing like batmans came to be, and he wasn't like really trying to fight for the cowl, but more like keep in check Batmans who used the image for bad-doings like Robin did at the moment, despite the fact that he was an adult and some other did so as well and they were this close to be put back on a lockdown again, but after they sort of decided to share with Robin babysitting them, Duke took his own Signal mantle

So ye, something like that, a plot-bunny jumping off to the wilderness, because it's actually too big and I'm mostly interested in Dick's part of the story and ye, have a nice day.

smth like ages and orders

Dick (29) - Jason (22) - Tim (19) - Steph (20) - Cass (23) - Damian (13) - Duke (17)

Dick (13) - Cass (17) - Jason (18) - Steph (19) - Tim (20) - Duke (22) - Damian (29)

Dick (8) - Cass (12) - Jason (13) - Steph (14) - Tim (15) - Duke (18) - Damian (24)

[badcaninecemetery]

(considering a mathematics minor, and i then wondered what my boys would do for majors/minors — feel free to reshare this post and respond and tell me what you think your f/os would do for majors/minors!!)

—

i think touya would definitely excel at a mathematical major. perhaps a more applied math because he's very talented and can easily calculate and predict (i'm thinking of how he's able to watch moves and emulate them without practice basically). he's kind of funny with it. he'll never study, just disappears into the shadows and rolls up on exam day to somehow make a 100 on it. plus, i feel like it'd make him feel great to start spitting statistics to someone and their eyes widen because he doesn't look like a math type of guy. he'd also potentially enjoy the probability aspect the most. he stares someone down and starts discussing theoretical probability—the number of favorable outcomes E / number of possible outcome S or n(E) / n(S) before he then moves on to conditional probability and expected value (the person he's talking to is evaporating).

for his minor, i'm thinking maybe something that has nothing to do with math. perhaps some legal system stuff, something that works with juvenile justice. i think it would be cathartic for him, but not something he could dedicate himself to because it can get heavy at times.

overhaul would take on the strain of doing a double major. he'd do chemistry (particularly some sort of biochemistry track) and biology (perhaps a biomedical sciences track). the two work so well together and i think he'd be very "hands-on" with things like this (thinking of the context of canon too). i can see him taking notes late into night, illuminated only by the orange glow of a library desk lamp (as opposed to touya leaning back and kicking his feet up on the desk right next to him). or him in class attempting to work in a group, but the group and him concoct some of the worst things to exist (in chemistry) or it's his luck that the equipment fails (him staring down blankly as the spectrophotometer reads a negative three hundred somehow before it reads point four with the same sample).

if he could handle a minor or be allowed to, i imagine he'd do something with business. it's more of a smaller thing, but something useful for him if he wants to do anything with his chemistry / biology degree (s).

[imaweirdnugget]

I'm bored at work. So I'll just lay out Cuno's timeline for the future au I've become obsessed with.

Cuno age 12 gets adopted by Harry legally or not who knows.

Age 15-16 is when he fully sobers up from speed.

Of course he has other substances but I'd like to think with Harry and Kims influence he can manage just fine.

Cuno age 17 graduated and has become a juvenile officer

He has two kids in this au to an unestablished woman (gotta think through this one)

Age 22 first kid

Age 23 he grows a mustache

Age 25 ish he becomes a lieutenant, idk how the system works so this is iffy

Grows a beard after.

Age 26 second kid

(Kids ages 9 and 12)

Age 34 is when he dies.

[maculategiraffe]

how can it be possible to try a child as an adult. isn't the point of having separate legal processes for children and adults that children are. different from adults. like if you want to just argue that that's not true and children are exactly the same as adults and if they do bad things then they should be held to the same standards as adults who do bad things that's one thing. I don't agree but I guess the justice system is arbitrary enough already that you could argue it. but given that that's not the case and that there's legally such a thing as a juvenile how can you then be like "but THIS twelve year old child, we feel, is a real piece of work. so much so that for the purposes of punishment I think we should all agree to pretend they're twenty." and the court system is like "word. for the purposes of this trial they are twenty." like what the actual fuck