Henning Kristin N, Omer Rebba D, de Jesus Janet M, Giombi Kristen, Silverman Jessi, Neal Elle, Agurs-Collins Tanya, Brown Alison G M, Pratt Charlotte, Yoon Sung Sug Sarah, Ajenikoko Funke, Iturriaga Erin
Georgetown Law Juvenile Justice Clinic & Initiative, 600 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20001, USA.
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC, USA.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2025 Jun;12(3):1777-1786. doi: 10.1007/s40615-024-02007-y. Epub 2024 Apr 22.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of youth across the country enter the juvenile legal system. A significantly disproportionate number of them are youth of color. While youth arrests have declined over the past several decades, racial disparities have increased and persist at every stage of the system. Many youth of color enter the juvenile legal system with a history of trauma and stress that compromises their health and well-being. Arrest, prosecution, and incarceration exacerbate these poor health outcomes. This paper examines several of the health impacts of structural racism in the policing and incarceration of youth of color. The paper begins by highlighting some of the most pressing social determinants of adolescent health and then considers how youth detention and incarceration contribute to unhealthy weight, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease through unhealthy food environments, limited physical activity, and the added stress of the incarceration setting. This paper adds to the existing literature on the harms of youth detention and advocates for harms elimination strategies grounded in a public health approach to public safety and community-based alternatives to detention. For those youth who will remain in detention, the authors offer suggestions to reduce harms and improve the health of systems-involved youth, including opportunities for research.
每年，全国成千上万的青少年进入少年司法系统。其中有色人种青少年的比例明显过高。虽然在过去几十年里青少年被捕人数有所下降，但种族差异却在增加，并且在该系统的每个阶段都持续存在。许多有色人种青少年带着创伤和压力的经历进入少年司法系统，这损害了他们的健康和幸福。逮捕、起诉和监禁加剧了这些不良健康后果。本文探讨了结构性种族主义在对有色人种青少年的警务和监禁方面对健康的若干影响。本文首先强调了一些最紧迫的青少年健康的社会决定因素，然后考虑青少年拘留和监禁如何通过不健康的食物环境、有限的身体活动以及监禁环境带来的额外压力导致不健康体重、高血压、糖尿病和心血管疾病。本文补充了关于青少年拘留危害的现有文献，并倡导基于公共卫生方法的公共安全危害消除策略以及以社区为基础的替代拘留措施。对于那些将继续被拘留的青少年，作者提出了减少危害和改善涉入系统青少年健康的建议，包括研究机会。
