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Victims, Offenders, and Other Children: A Right to Privacy?

NCJ Number
137505
Journal
American Journal of Criminal Law Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: (Spring 1992) Pages: 485-501
Author(s)
J Grant
Date Published
1992
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Increasing attention is being focused on the need for the creation of a subclass of private facts disclosures involving minors.
Abstract
There are two primary reasons supporting special treatment for children. The elements of the tort are closely related to the reasons why society and the law protect children, for example the special procedures developed in many States to deal with juvenile criminal offenders and victims of child abuse. Secondly, the U.S. Supreme Court has been willing to disregard first amendment claims in cases where children did not have the same rights as adults or where minors required extra protection from alleged offenses of others. This view is particularly applicable to privacy torts, where media corporations raise freedom of the press as their defense. These considerations of privacy are especially relevant in two circumstances: those involving the disclosure of crimes committed by juvenile offenders and those involving the disclosure of the identity of juvenile rape and child abuse victims. 66 notes