Purpose: Responding to social work's grand challenge of smart decarceration, this study investigated whether Family Centered Treatment (FCT), a home-based service for juvenile court-involved youth, is more effective than group care (GC) in reducing recidivism. Outcomes are juvenile readjudication and commitment to placement, and adult conviction…

Criminologists, lawmakers, policymakers, educators, and others discuss juvenile delinquency and recidivism and note the relationship to adult offending and cost factors. Poverty, peer relations, family life, and school are risk factors that have been linked to define the problem of juvenile crime. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to…

Although evidence indicates that Victim-Offender Mediation (VOM) provides an effective alternative to traditional sanctioning for young offenders, research investigating suitable candidates for VOM is lacking. Reintegrative shaming is theorized to be the mechanism underlying successful mediation; however, it is difficult to determine whether shame…

Used a theory-driven approach to evaluate a gang crime reduction program over 7 years. Data for 237 repeat juvenile offenders admitted to the program indicate a strong relationship between incarceration and gang crime trends and an overall reduction of 47% in gang crime. Discusses implications of the approach for program evaluation. (SLD)

There are many practical difficulties in conducting forensic evaluations of adolescents charged with serious crimes. This paper addresses some of the reasons why adolescent forensic evaluations are problematic and suggests four strategies for establishing and maintaining rapport, based on a practitioner's experience in evaluating adolescents…

Project About Face is a joint effort of the Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court, Youth Services, Inc., the Naval Air Station at Millington, Correctional Counseling, Inc., and the Bureau of Educational Research Services at Memphis State University. The project's goal is to implement a correctional education and training program that reduces…

Understanding and addressing the social structures that give rise to student violence require educators, parents, and society at large to adopt a critical, feminist perspective focusing on injustice and incorporating perspectives of marginalized students. Because practices of social groups play a critical role in self-identity, the violent actions…

This collection of papers presented at a 1996 conference on children's mental health focuses on the juvenile justice system. Papers have the following titles and authors: (1) "Delinquency and Mental Illness: The Intersection of Problems and Systems" (Carolyn S. Breda); (2) "Assessing the Mental Health of Adolescents in the Mental Health and…

This study uses a historical perspective to examine the interface of the Maryland Juvenile Justice Department and the Mental Hygiene Administration in their efforts to provide services to youth involved with the juvenile justice system who were found to have mental disorders. A time line was constructed documenting developments from the 16th…

Presents the text of a lecture that looks at the declaratory, procedural, and monitoring features of a Children Act that would encompass lessons from the past to enhance the future of Scottish children. Also discusses four major questions at the heart of child-centered legislation. (TJQ)

This qualitative study conducted in urban Miami, Florida, explored the essence of juvenile delinquency and recidivism: its causes, its relations to communities, the roles of families, and the myriad roles of residential treatment programs at rehabilitating young offenders. Data were collected from nine young adult participants who had satisfied…

Individuals differ in the level of skill with which they can identify their feelings and the feelings of others, manage these feelings, and use the information provided by their feelings to motivate adaptive behavior in themselves. Identifying the skill of a serious and violent juvenile offender (SVJ) to manage his emotional state is important for…

This paper describes the evaluative research of the Palm Beach County, Florida School Districts Youth Court Trial Program. Youth or teen courts have been implemented as an alternative measure to juvenile courts for handling adolescents who committed delinquent acts, usually for the first time. The purpose of the applied research was to identify…

Children who are subjected to the juvenile justice system suffer injustices and prejudices similar to those experienced by women and minorities. The main difference is that there is no political group comprised of juveniles who could advocate for a new approach to juvenile justice. This makes them the most vulnerable of all individuals who come…

The predictive power of the Split-Half version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Revised (WISC-R) Object Assembly (OA) subtest was compared to that of the full administration of the OA subtest. A cohort of 218 male and 49 female adolescent offenders detained in a Texas juvenile detention facility between 1990 and 1992 was used. The…