The largest population of youth at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system are those with disabilities and mental illness. There has been scant research into the pathways that these students take from home, school and the community to involvement in the justice system in Australia. This paper utilises insights from critical disability…

This monograph is an analysis of the use of residential and non-residential programs as alternatives to secure detention for juveniles awaiting adjudicatory hearings in juvenile courts. The analysis is based on literature from the last decade supplemented by interviews and statistics from site visits to 14 juvenile court jurisdictions with…

Truancy is the first sign that a youngster is giving up and losing his or her way. Research shows that students who become truant and eventually drop out of school put themselves at a long-term disadvantage in becoming productive citizens. Dropouts are more likely to be on welfare or unemployed than high school graduates. High truancy rates are…

This report describes the Services to Unruly Youth Program, a pilot project designed to provide services outside the juvenile justice system to unruly youth. Procedures used in the delivery of these services to unruly youth are listed, including service reception, support units, and the community services system. Technical and citizen support are…

In 1976 the Special Emphasis branch of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention made $10 million available for the development of 11 diversion programs. A national evaluation of these programs was promoted in the hope of better understanding the viability of diversion as an alternative to traditional practices. The impact of…