Old: "Juvenile delinquent."
Real old: "Punk."
New: "Justice-Involved youth."
Yes, that's the name the ultra-nonjudgmental Obama administration has decided to call young criminals, because the word "criminals" apparently makes them feel bad, and we can't have that.
Investor's Daily reports:
A press release issued earlier [on April 25] describes a new $1.75 million grant program as designed “to help young people involved in the justice system find jobs and housing.”
And here's a quote from the press release:
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and HUD Secretary Julián Castro announced the funding during a news conference with local leaders in Philadelphia today.
“The future of our nation depends upon the future of our young people – including young people who have become involved with our justice system,” said Attorney General Lynch. “By helping justice-involved youth find decent jobs and stable housing after they return home, these critical grants provide a foundation for a fresh start and offer a path towards productivity and purpose. In the months ahead, the Department of Justice will continue helping justice-involved youth enrich their lives and improve our country.”
“Reconnecting young people who've paid their debt to society to decent jobs and housing allows them to turn the page and become active, productive members of their communities,” said Secretary Castro. “These grants offer a helping hand to those who deserve a second chance so they have a real opportunity to reach their full potential.”
Of course the term "juvenile delinquent" is itself a euphemism, a euphemism from the 19th century, when legal reformers set up the first "juvenile courts,"which, for the first time in Western history, regarded teens who committed crimes as more in need of reform than punishment. Before then, you were either an "infant" (too young to harbor the "malice" that is an element of every crime), or you were an adult. That was it.
But as so often happens with fancy-phrase euphemism, people quickly saw right through "juvenile delinquent–which now to most people means "young thug you want to avoid." So a few years ago the professorial class decided it was time for a new euphemism, and so "justice-involved youth" came into politically correct being. Lynch and Castro were simply taking their cues from academia, home of the "safe space."
What I'm waiting for is the day when "justice-involved youth" comes to mean "young thug you want to avoid." Uless that $1.75 million grant works some miracles, I give the phrase about a year.