By Sue Dremann for PaloAltoOnline.com

People's opinions on whether youth who break the law should be sentenced as adults vary significantly when a single word -- black or white -- is used to describe the defendant, a new study by Stanford University's Department of Psychology has found.

Those sentiments crossed genders, political persuasions and feelings about race among the 735 white Americans who took part in the study, "Race and the Fragility of the Legal Distinction between Juveniles and Adults." The report was published May 23 in the journal PloS ONE.

The study spotlights glaring disparities that could lead to the loss of leniency for youth in the criminal-justice system, authors Aneeta Rattan, Cynthia S. Levine, Carol S. Weck and Jennifer L. Eberhardt wrote.

By Lee Logan for The Tampa Bay Times

The decision to eliminate funding for a well-regarded nonprofit alternative school for troubled youth has sparked a backlash from a key Pasco lawmaker.

In a letter sent Thursday to the Department of Juvenile Justice, state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, called it "ill advised" to pull funding for most of the Central Florida operations of AMIkids.

Fasano said he's seen firsthand how children have benefited from the mix of education and counseling provided by AMI, formerly called the New Port Richey Marine Institute.

By Susan Ferriss for the Center for Public Integrity

Previously undisclosed school police records from New York City are raising new concerns about students getting heavily ticketed for vague allegations of disorderly conduct.

More than 70 percent of court summonses issued to New York City school students between January and the end of March this year were for disruptive behavior, according to a new analysis released by the American Civil Liberties Union of New York this week.

“The high percentage of disorderly conduct charges — a catchall category that could encompass all kinds of typical misbehavior — indicates that NYPD officers are getting involved in non-criminal disciplinary incidents,” said Udi Ofer, the ACLU New York’s advocacy director, in a statement.  The NYPD took control of school safety in 1998. Armed officers are assigned to patrol schools, along with thousands of school safety officers who are unarmed but have the authority to search and arrest students.

By Steve Campion for NBC2.com

CHARLOTTE COUNTY - The Department of Juvenile Justice is forced to revaluate a controversial cut in Charlotte County after Florida's governor stepped in.

The agency decided not to renew its contract with AMI Kids Crossroads despite a successful record of turning trouble teen lives around.

By Stephanie Carroll Carson for The Charlotte Observer

RALEIGH – The state House Judiciary Committee today will hear testimony about proposed legislation to raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction.

North Carolina is one of only two states which automatically prosecute 16- and 17-year-olds as adults for misdemeanors as minor as stealing a can of soda. Child advocates acknowledge that such crimes should be recognized by the judicial system, but many are pushing for the Legislature to pass SB 434, which prosecutes teen-agers as juveniles in misdemeanor cases.

By Doris Nhan for NationalJournal.com

People are more likely to assign blame to juvenile defendants if they imagined them as black, increasing the likelihood of supporting a harsher punishment for them, a study released last week concludes.

The researchers from Stanford University's psychology department suggest their findings may have broad implications for how juveniles are seen and treated in a criminal-justice system that is predominantly white, from lawyers to jurists to jurors.

The legal system’s assumption of less culpability for juveniles affords them some protection against the harshest punishments for severe crimes, but the conclusions from this study indicate that those protections may not hold up when factoring in a young person's race.

By Brandi Grissom for the Texas Tribune

Cherie Townsend, the executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, announced Tuesday that she will retire at the end of June after nearly four years leading the state's institutions for youth offenders.

In an email sent Tuesday morning to agency staff, Townsend wrote that in the last couple of months, as the agency has struggled to deal with reports of increasing violence and safety concerns at the state's youth lockups, her "values and principles related to best practices in juvenile justice" have detracted from "the mission and work of the agency."

By Selena Teji for Youth Today

California Gov. Jerry Brown was recently quoted telling the state Legislature to “man up” on his proposed budget cuts and yet, when it comes to juvenile justice, it seems the governor consistently bends under pressure.

Unfortunately, the effects of his juvenile justice compromise will soon be felt by all California residents, according to a new CJCJ publication. With scarce and finite resources, the governor’s decision to grant a reprieve for state youth correctional facilities, in his May revised budget, creates an additional strain on already scantily-funded state services.