Juvenile Justice
(2007)

How does America's juvenile justice system work? In what ways has it failed? And what would it take to improve it so that it routinely operates in the best interests of offenders, their victims, and society as a whole? These are not simple questions, as this Fred Friendly Seminar points out - and they become all the more complex when moderator Charles Ogletree, of Harvard Law School, casts 13 experts as figures in a hypothetical scenario involving two families, four teens, and a sequence of violent crimes culminating in murder. By incrementally raising the stakes, Ogletree moderates a passionate discussion that addresses different conceptions of justice, the balance between rehabilitation of a minor and the safety of the public, the need to strengthen the home environment, availability of social services, and matters of race and socioeconomic status.

Funders: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, JEHT Foundation