Shackled in the land of liberty: No rights for children

This article addresses the rights of children in areas of juvenile justice, child welfare, and mental health. Although a large proportion of the juven ile court's business includes child welfare and mental health cases, these important areas are rarely considered by authors concerned with the future of the juvenile court. In mental health, children have few, if any, rights. Yet, they are often subjected to abuse and constraints that would constitu te major civil rights violations if they were adults. In child welfare, chi ldren have some basic rights, but they are often dependent upon the virtual ly unbridled discretion of child welfare and other administrative officials . More often than not, the juvenile court plays a perfunctory role in the p rocess and merely rubber-stamps recommendations made by child welfare perso nnel. The article discusses the implications of these issues and how they s hould be addressed in the future.