CHILDISM

Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2012) ("Let me give you an example of American society's prejudice against children . . . and ask you to think about it. The example is a fact, a shameful fact: America incarcerates more of its children than any country in the world. Half a million American children are currently in juvenile detention centers (juvies), where many of them are victims of abuse and neglect, as many of them were victims of abuse and neglect before they arrived. Some of the 'delinquents' are there because they were arrested for a crime and are awaiting trial. They will be tried in courts that are permitted to sentence children convicted of homicide to life without parole in adult prisons. Until a recent Supreme Court decision, the courts could have sentenced them to death. Others were incarcerated without arrest: they were simply found on the streets, sometimes homeless, sometimes mentally ill, and judged to be out of control and dangerous 'to themselves and others.' No one knew what else to do with them." [] "Although a movement is now afoot to do something about the escalating child-incarceration rate, it is not framed as struggle to overcome prejudice against children. Far from it. . . . " Id. at 2. From the bookjacket: "In this groundbreaking volume on the human rights of children, . . . Elisabeth Young-Bruehl argues that prejudice exists against children as a group and that it is comparable to racism, sexism, and homophobia. This prejudice--childism--legitimates and rationalizes a broad continuum of acts that are not 'in the best interests of children,' including the often violent extreme of child abuse and neglect. According to Young-Bruehl, reform is possible only if we acknowledge this prejudice in its basic forms and address the motives and cultural forces that drive it, rather than dwell on the various categories of abuse and punishment.").