Juvenile / Youth
The Juvenile population in Corrections are at a crucial point in their life. It is important to reach the Juvenule population with the support and advocacy they need to let them know that they are not forgotten and that this does not mean its the end of the road no matter the sentence.
Recommended Books
When Your Child Is Arrested. By Scott Larson and John Kingsley
Girls in Justice by Richard Ross
Resources
Still Cruel and Unusual: Extreme Sentences for Youth and Emerging Adults
This brief by The Sentencing Project recommends that youth and emerging adults who committed crimes during adolescence should receive a sentence review within the first ten years, with a rebuttable presumption of release after fifteen years. This brief argues for extending the sentencing relief available in JLWOP cases to those serving other forms of life imprisonment for crimes committed in their youth.
An Overview of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act
The purpose of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, established 50 years ago, was to protect children and young people in the justice system, address delinquent behavior, and improve community safety.
5 Things about Youth and Delinquency
National Institute of Justice research and data on youth and delinquency is critical for identifying opportunities and developing strategies to support positive development through prevention and intervention. Responses to youth misbehavior by youth-serving systems — including education, child welfare, behavioral health, and justice systems — can play an important role in promoting or disrupting youths’ healthy social and emotional development. The five findings below provide insights into the nature, scope, and context of youth and delinquency.
Youth Justice by the Numbers
This policy brief by the Sentencing Project reveals that between 2000-2022, there has been a 75% decline in youth incarceration. However, racial and ethnic disparities in youth incarceration and sentencing persist despite overall decrease in youth offending.
Effectiveness of Restorative Justice Principles in Juvenile Justice
The restorative justice theoretical framework views crime as a violation of people and relationships. These violations in turn create an obligation to make things right. Restorative justice aims to reestablish the balance that has been offset as a result of a crime by involving the primary stakeholders (i.e. victim, offender, and the affected community) in the decision-making process of how best to restore this balance. The focus is on healing as opposed to punishment. The objective of this study was to systematically review and statistically synthesize all available research that, at a minimum, compared participants in a restorative justice program to participants processed in a more traditional way using meta-analytic methods.
Protect and Redirect: America’s Growing Movement to Divert Youth Out of the Justice System
Jurisdictions across the country are advancing reforms to expand and improve diversion, demonstrating diversion’s potential to transform youth justice in ways that protect public safety and enhance youth success. This brief by Richard Mendel of The Sentencing Project details significant diversion reform efforts of several types.
Drug & Alcohol Use Reported by Youth in Juvenile Facilities, 2008-2018
These statistical tables are from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and describe patterns of drug and alcohol use among youth in juvenile facilities before they entered custody.
Why Youth Incarceration Fails
This publication by the Sentencing Group summarizes the evidence documenting the serious problems associated with the youth justice system’s continuing heavy reliance on incarceration and makes recommendations for reducing the use of confinement.
Youth Incarceration in the United States
This infographic by the Annie E. Casey Foundation displays the positive and negative trends in youth incarceration along with a list of opportunities for improving the situation.
Youth and the Juvenile Justice System 2022
This report by the National Center for Juvenile Justice draws on reliable data and relevant research to provide a comprehensive and insightful view of youth victims and offending by youth, and what happens to youth when they enter the juvenile justice system in the U.S.
Juveniles Incarcerated in U. S. Adult Jails & Prisons, 2002-2021
This statistical report comes from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The report shows changes in the number of juveniles (persons age 17 or younger) held in adult prisons and jails between 2002 and 2021. It also provides data on juveniles by sex and by whether they were held in federal prisons, state prisons, or local jails.
2020 Juvenile Court Statistics
This report was prepared by the National Center for Juvenile Justice, the research division of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Juvenile Court Statistics 2020 describes delinquency cases and petitioned status offense cases handled between 2005 and 2020 by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction.
Considerations for Social Media Monitoring and Response
As more schools become involved in social media monitoring and response, a variety of logistical, technological, and ethical challenges appear. This document, published by the University of Michigan, highlights example practices, concerns, and methods for social media monitoring in a school setting.
Facility Characteristics of Sexual Victimization of Youth in Juvenile Facilities, 2018-Statistical Tables
This report authored by Amy D. Lauger and Michael B. Field of the Bureau of Justice Statistics describes characteristics of juvenile justice facilities related to youth-reported sexual victimization in 18.
Too Many Locked Doors: The scope of youth confinement is vastly understated
This report authored by Josh Rovner of the Sentencing Project’s analyzes the current one day count measurement of youth incarceration–a measurement which undercounts youth who are detained awaiting a court hearing.
Data Reveals Violence Among Youth under 18 Has Not Spiked in the Pandemic
The Sentencing Project’s review of the available data about youth violence during the pandemic suggests that the share of crimes in the U.S. committed by youth has fallen by more than half over the past two decades, and it continued to fall for all major offense categories in 2020.
This report written by Richard A Mendel of The Sentencing Project analyzes describes diversion and disparities in diversion. The report asserts that diverting youth from juvenile court involvement should be a central focus in efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities and improve outcomes in our nation’s youth justice systems.
Restorative Justice for Juveniles, Literature Review
This review put out by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention focuses on the use of restorative justice for juveniles, including the theoretical framework, target populations, the goals and various models of restorative justice programs, and the outcome evidence in regard to the effectiveness of juvenile restorative justice programs.
Substance Abuse Prevention Programs, Literature Review
This review put out by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention focuses on initiation of substance use among children and youth. The review describes the scope of substance use among youth, risk factors that can lead to substance use, protective factors that can buffer against initiation, various types of prevention programs and outcome evidence, and limitations to the research currently available.
Summary of Prosecution, Transfer & Registration of Juveniles who Commit Serious Sex Offenses
This summary is put out by the US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs and provides information on juvenile adjudication, juvenile sex offender registration, state and territory profiles.
Pathways to Desistance of Crime Among Juveniles and Adults
This paper by the National Institute of Justice provides an overview of the mechanisms underlying the process of desistance from crime among juveniles and adults and the implications for criminal justice policy and practice.
Back to School Action Guide, Re-Engaging and Closing the School to Prison Pipeline
This guide, put out by the Sentencing Project, details a wide variety of promising and proven strategies and outlines an action agenda proposing immediate help options for vulnerable students and a shift to prioritize opportunity and not punishment.
Rethinking Justice for Emerging Adults–spotlight on the Great Lakes region
This report from the Juvenile Law Center aims to lay the groundwork for more developmentally appropriate responses to emerging adults at risk of justice system involvement, with a particular focus on opportunities for reform in the Great Lakes region. The report begins by describing the defining characteristics of emerging adulthood and laying out the case for reforming the justice system’s approach to emerging adults. The report then examines examples and lessons from around the country where reforms are underway.
Sticker Shock 2020: The Cost of Youth Incarceration
A recent report published by the Justice Policy Institute indicates that the average state cost for the secure confinement of a young person is now $588 per day, or $214,620 per year, a 44 percent increase from 2014. These cost figures over a six-year period represent the growing economic impact of incarcerating youth. However, the long-term impact of these policies extends well beyond the fiscal cost.
Reentry Starts Here: A Guide for Youth in Long-Term Juvenile Corrections and Treatment Programs
This toolkit was developed by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as a resource to help young people in juvenile corrections and treatment programs prepare for reentry and success in the community.
Examining the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Involvement in the Justice System
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has supported many studies over the years to help understand the complex dynamics of childhood exposure to violence. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has also supported research, programs, and training to better understand and improve responses to children exposed to violence and childhood trauma. Together, these efforts help inform the development and enhancement of programs, practices, and policies designed to prevent violence, reduce the impact of violence on children and youth, and improve the capacity of the criminal and juvenile justice systems.
Juvenile Justice: Annotated Bibliography
Are you looking for a comprehensive list of resources about juvenile justice? Then this publication is for you. It offers a wide range of sources that will give you an excellent review of the field of juvenile justice. Each annotation explains what the item is about, with many having Web links. Citations are organized into the following areas: courts; juvenile assessment; assessment tools; programs; programs for young women; facilities; training; websites; and juvenile sex offenders.
Arrest Characteristics of Older Juveniles and Young Adults
Juvenile Arrests, 2016 (December, 2018)
This bulletin, released by Juvenile Justice Statistics, describes the latest trends in arrests involving juveniles from 1980 to 2016.
Childhood Trauma: Changing Minds
Witnessing violence can change a kid’s mind. You can help them heal. New research shows that witnessing traumatic events, like domestic violence, shootings, or even fighting, can impact the physical development of a child’s brain — potentially leading to lifelong health and social issues. But you can help reverse the effects. This site will teach you about the science of childhood trauma, and how five everyday gestures can make a world of difference.
Because Kids are Different: Five Opportunities for Reforming the Juvenile Justice System
Juvenile courts in the United States ostensibly operate with the overarching goals of holding youth accountable for wrongdoing, reducing crime, and increasing public safety. However, the actual policies and practices of state juvenile justice systems frequently work against these goals. “Holding youth accountable” is often simplified to involve only punishment—formal court processing with harsh consequences or incarceration for even minor offenses, despite more and more studies confirming the ineffectiveness of these approaches. Too few juvenile justice systems use programs and practices that teach youth about the consequences of their wrongdoing in a holistic way, or give youth opportunities to restore damage they have caused, when feasible, and the tools to learn from their mistakes and make better choices in the future.
The MacArthur Foundation Status Report: Juvenile Justice in a Developmental Framework
This report defines developmentally appropriate best practices in nine key juvenile justice policy areas and examines which states (and the District of Columbia) have, as of mid-2015, incorporated those practices into their juvenile justice statutes. The policy areas are status offense rules, age limits for juvenile court jurisdiction, transfer to adult court, access to counsel, competency to stand trial, courtroom shackling, solitary confinement, juvenile records, and sex offender registration.
Trends in Juvenile Justice
This report goes over the more and better information is available to policymakers on the causes of juvenile crime and what can be done to prevent it. This includes important information about neurobiological and psychosocial factors and the effect on development and competency of adolescents. The research has contributed to recent legislative trends to distinguish juvenile from adult offenders, restore the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, and adopt scientific screening and assessment tools to structure decision-making and identify needs of juvenile offenders. Competency statutes and policies have become more research-based, and youth interventions are evidence-based across a range of programs and services. Other legislative actions have increased due process protections for juveniles, reformed detention and addressed racial disparities in juvenile justice systems.?
All Children are Children is a report by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to challenge abusive punishments of juveniles.
Interactive Map: Rates of Incarceration for each state broken out by race, ethnicity and gender
Custody rates are calculated per 100,000 juveniles ages 10 through the upper age of original juvenile court jurisdiction in each State. Click on a state to see that state’s overall number of incarcerated youth, and breakdowns of incarcerated youth by race, ethnicity, and gender as compared to the general youth population in that state.
When Your Child Is Arrested: A Parent’s Guide to the Juvenile Justice System by Scott Larson and John Kinsley
Whether you were expecting it or not, news of your child’s arrest can be extraordinarily difficult. In that moment of blurred emotions, it’s not easy to think clearly or understand what will happen next. This booklet walks you step-by-step through the process, sharing stories of pain and healing from other parents who have traveled the same road. Not only will you get a sense of what to expect from the legal system, you’ll find information on what your child may experience while being detained. Discover how you can participate in the process and become your son or daughter’s best advocate during and after confinement.
Back on Track: Supporting Youth Reentry from Out-of-Home Placement to the Community.
This report provides guidance and recommendations for achieving successful reentry services and programs. Sections following an executive summary are: introduction; characteristics of reentry youth; collateral consequences associated with out-of-home placement; essential components of youth reentry services; effective outcomes for youth reentry; federal support for reentry in the child welfare system; principles for effective youth reentry; and recommendations for federal leadership in youth reentry.
Exclusive Members Content
The following articles are found in the Members Section of the CMCA Website.
- Overview of the Juvenile Justice System
- Court Decision on Life Without Parole
- Reentry Starts Here: A Guide for Youth in Long-Term Juvenile Corrections and Treatment Programs
