Bernardine Dohrn, Clinical Associate Professor of Law and founding director of the Children and Family Justice Center, is a child advocate who teaches, lectures and writes about children’s law, juvenile justice, the needs and rights of youth, and international human rights. The Center is a holistic children's law center and a national policy center for the comprehensive needs of adolescents and their families, providing critical analysis and knowledge about youth law and practice, matters associated with the administration of justice, and the preparation of professionals who advocate for children. She is co-author, with Bill Ayers, of Race Course: Against White Supremacy (2009), and an author and co-editor of two books: “A Century of Juvenile Justice” (2002) and “Resisting Zero Tolerance: A Handbook for Parents, Teachers and Students” (2001). She is the author of I’ll Try Anything Once: Using the Conceptual Framework of Children’s Human Rights Norms in the U.S., Univ. Mich. Journal of Law Reform (2007); “The Cultivation of Fear & Criminalization” in Pox Americana: Exposing the American Empire (2004); “All Ellas: Girls Locked Up” in Feminist Studies (Summer 2004); co-editor of Sing A Battle Song: Documents of the Weather Underground, and wrote the introduction to Letters from Young Activists (2004).

Blog Entries by Bernardine Dohrn

No Safe Passage: Little Rock to Chicago

1 Comments | Posted October 7, 2009 | 12:17 PM (EST)


Last week, the heartbreaking beating death of 16-year-old Chicago student Derrion Albert was captured on video, unleashing a fresh wave of sorrow on the South Side, another layer of fear and terror among students and families in the community, and -- painfully, the predictable calls from authorities for more harsh...

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Our Justice System Needs to Protect Children's Human Rights

8 Comments | Posted October 5, 2009 | 10:49 AM (EST)


Children's human rights are being violated every day in police stations and courts across America.   

Youngsters are held in isolation, lied to about police evidence, falsely told that they failed lie-detector tests, that a co-defendant fingered them, that blood or hair samples condemned them.  They are denied access to...

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