Yale National Clinician Scholars Program, New Haven, Connecticut.
David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2021 Nov;60(11):1337-1339. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2021.02.019. Epub 2021 Mar 7.
In August 2020, in the midst of a national conversation about racism in the United States, news of a Black eight-year-old boy being arrested for sitting improperly in the school cafeteria spread through the country. Body-camera footage showed police attempting to place the boy in handcuffs that slipped from his wrists before they took him to a juvenile detention facility where he was charged with felony battery. The boy's mother and lawyer reported that following arrest, he experienced somatic and trauma symptoms, including headaches, nightmares, and insomnia. His story, and the attention it garnered, illustrate the importance of the growing movement to establish a national minimum age of juvenile justice jurisdiction-an age below which a child cannot be prosecuted in juvenile court. We call upon child and adolescent psychiatrists to join this movement as a critical tool for promoting mental health and racial equity for children.
2020 年 8 月，在美国全国上下热议种族主义问题之际，一则关于一名 8 岁黑人男孩因在学校自助餐厅坐姿不当而被捕的消息传遍全国。执法记录仪的画面显示，警察试图给他戴上手铐，但手铐从他的手腕滑落，随后他们将他带到少年拘留所，男孩被控以重罪殴打罪。男孩的母亲和律师报告说，被捕后，他出现了躯体和创伤症状，包括头痛、噩梦和失眠。他的故事和引起的关注说明了建立全国未成年人司法管辖最低年龄制度的重要性——在这个年龄以下，儿童不能在少年法庭被起诉。我们呼吁儿童和青少年精神病学家加入这一运动，这是促进儿童心理健康和种族公平的重要工具。
