{"id":8497,"date":"2010-01-05T22:37:47","date_gmt":"2010-01-06T03:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=8497"},"modified":"2010-01-05T22:37:47","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T03:37:47","slug":"not-quite-children-not-quite-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/01\/not-quite-children-not-quite-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Quite Children, Not Quite Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday\u2019s New York Times<\/em> reports that individual states and the federal government are currently working on new laws to address the problem of teenage runaways<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0A couple of different problems with runaways have received public attention lately, and a fair amount of attention has been focused on teenage prostitution.\u00a0 According to the Times<\/em>, there is evidence that increasing numbers of runaway teens are turning to prostitution as the recession makes it difficult for them to obtain other, safer forms of employment.\u00a0 Kids who are caught engaging in sex trafficking are often arrested and charged, but there is no evidence that this is having any positive effects on the larger problems that left the kids homeless and engaging in prostitution in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new initiatives discussed in the Times<\/em> article, especially some policy guidelines being drafted by the National Conference of State Legislatures, are a big step in a positive direction.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The guidelines would, for example, require persons who work with juveniles to report suspicions of youth involvement in prostitution to child welfare agencies.\u00a0 At first glance, this requirement might seem unnecessary, because all states currently have child abuse reporting statutes that require adults working with children to report instances of suspected sexual abuse.\u00a0 Since minors cannot consent to sexual activity, in reality adults working with exploited minors already have an obligation to report child prostitution as a form of sexual abuse of a child.\u00a0 A new specific law is probably necessary, though, because not only do adults currently not report child prostitution to child welfare agencies, it is likely that the minors will be arrested and charged with prostitution instead of receiving services.\u00a0 Along the same lines, the ABA is planning to lobby Congress for increased services for runaways, as well as a law that prevents minors from being charged with prostitution when they are not even old enough to legally consent to sexual activity.<\/p>\n

Our society has always been conflicted about what should be appropriate policies for dealing with runaway youth, and current laws reflect that conflict.\u00a0 On the one hand, our society has become increasingly intolerant of law-breaking teenagers, and American law has a tradition of recognizing young people as adults if they choose to live independently from their parents (the doctrine of emancipation).\u00a0 On the other hand, social science research has shown that teenagers who run away from home are usually facing serious difficulties such as school adjustment problems, mental illness, substance abuse, or family problems like abuse or neglect.\u00a0 A significant percentage of runaways are actually \u201cthrowaways\u201d \u2013 meaning that their parents have kicked them out of the home.\u00a0 Once kids hit the streets, they are vulnerable to all sorts of dangers, including addiction, sexual exploitation, and exposure to the elements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tracking down the runaways and returning them home or putting them in jail for drugs or prostitution may seem like reasonable solutions because such policies get the kids off the streets and away from the dangers there.\u00a0 To the missing teens, though, being treated like fugitives who are taken into custody can only feel punitive.\u00a0 Some of these kids are in circumstances that are punishing enough as it is, and their desire to escape their home situations makes them avoid any agents seen as aiming only to return them to their former school or family situations.\u00a0 These minors need compassion, education, and safe shelter; some need psychological counseling, family counseling, or treatment for addiction or STDs as well.\u00a0 Punishment has been counterproductive.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time that we recognized that minors \u2013 even disobedient, violent, or addicted ones \u2013 are still minors.\u00a0 They are especially vulnerable to exploitation by adults, and they deserve policies that will help them to escape prostitution and lives on the streets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday\u2019s New York Times reports that individual states and the federal government are currently working on new laws to address the problem of teenage runaways.\u00a0\u00a0A couple of different problems with runaways have received public attention lately, and a fair amount of attention has been focused on teenage prostitution.\u00a0 According to the Times, there is evidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-law","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}