This document describes Minnesota statutes and cases that provide rights, responsibilities, and protections for young people different from those applicable to adults. It gives legislators an overview of all laws affecting young people, serving as a reference aid for current state policies toward youth. It is basically a state guide, including…

Examined records of 558 juveniles sheltered at short-term residential facility for five years to determine effect of Illinois' Minor Requiring Authoritative Intervention (MRAI) statute on status offenders. Results indicated that dispositions of clients MRAI legislation were not significantly different from earlier dispositions under old Minor in…

This document contains recommendations made by the Wisconsin Juvenile Justice Study Committee. Created by the Governor and the Wisconsin State Legislature to study the effectiveness of the Children's Code and related issues, the committee recommended changes that would significantly alter the way Wisconsin treats young lawbreakers. To the primary…

Although geographically specific, this report is intended to serve as an educational resource for community, agency, and legislative personnel regarding the impacts created by revised legislation about children and the approaches used to improve the quality of justice for young people and their families. It is based on changes made in the juvenile…

This case study documents reform policies and practices for handling juveniles, and the development of complete monitoring of child welfare and juvenile facilities. Due to the work of citizen and child advocacy groups, ways have been developed in Pennsylvania to determine whether state and federal laws regarding institutionalized children are…

The rise of parental responsibility statutes creates tension between the state's duty to respect the integrity of the family and the duty to protect children and the best interests of society. Yet, there is an ever-growing belief that something must be done to reverse the trend of juvenile crime. Parental responsibility laws have emerged as an…

This report explores current state laws regarding dispositional options for adjudicated delinquents; examines decision-making responsibility for placement, sentence length and discharge within state juvenile justice systems; and highlights some of the more innovative state approaches in juvenile justice dispositions and sentencing practices. Data…

This guide documents cost effective methods of providing community-based alternative court intervention services to youth. The service program was designed to assist adolescent status offenders and their families in resolving the underlying problems which bring the youths to the attention of the juvenile system. A Family Crisis Intervention Center…

Statutory laws, case laws, and model laws have been provided in this report as a basis for comparing Mississippi's juvenile laws with other juvenile laws. Since legislation concerning juvenile courts is vast, complete legislation is only provided for the State of Mississippi and two model juvenile court acts. Discussion, however, is provided which…

Over the past ten years, probation departments across the state of California have seen a number of important changes in the way they do business. Beginning with Title IV-A-EA in 1993, departments began a system-wide "sea change," from a focus on suppression, enforcement, and monitoring of youthful offenders to a focus on families and on…

This report summarizes data collected in the "most ambitious study of the out-of-state placement of children ever undertaken in America." It reports data gathered for the year 1978 from more than 20,000 public agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and from more than 50 counties, including 60,000 individual contacts. The volume is…

This legal guide, developed by the Alaska Congress of Parents and Teachers, is intended for young citizens and parents to advise youth of their civil rights and explain what constitutes a criminal offense. The aim is to objectively state the law in understandable terms. The book is arranged in four sections. Section one explains the legal rights…