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August 1996

Overview: Why Comprehensive Juvenile Justice?

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Public fear of crime and concern that juveniles are disproportionately responsible for violent crime in this country have put juvenile justice reform high on state legislative agendas. Half a dozen states in recent years have held special sessions on juvenile crime, and legislative leaders surveyed by NCSL identified juvenile justice as their No. 1 priority. Indeed, youth crime and violence have spurred a full-fledged movement in the states to reinvent juvenile justice and to hold serious, chronic and violent young offenders more accountable.

Statistics support this concern. The U.S. Department of Justice reported soaring juvenile violent crime rates between 1988 and 1994. Juvenile arrests for violent crime increased more than 50 percent during that period. Only about 11 percent of the U.S. population was aged 10 to 17 in 1994, but children under age 18 accounted for 19 percent of violent crime arrests.

The outlook for juvenile crime over the next 10 years is ominous as well. While the overall crime rate in the United States dropped by 2 percent in 1994 and the violent crime rate fell 4 percent, a continued surge in juvenile violence is predicted. Demographics suggest that a swell of children now under age 10 -- many of whom a prominent Princeton professor recently referred to as "fatherless, godless and jobless" -- could create yet another wave of lawlessness. Indeed, crime researchers issue dire warnings that if violent crime rates for juveniles aged 10 to 17 continue the trend of the past decade, population increases will mean the number of juvenile arrests will more than double by the year 2010.

And the face and shape of juvenile crime is changing. Crimes committed by juveniles still include those like theft and vandalism, but serious crimes such as robbery, rape and weapons-related offenses including murder are increasingly part of the juvenile crime scene. A typical view is that the juvenile justice system of old, designed to guide wayward youth onto the right path, is out-of-date and ineffective in dealing with the growing serious, violent nature of youth crime. That view has resulted in many "get tough" policies to treat juveniles like adult criminals. Yet other experts remain staunch in their belief that traditional juvenile justice approaches provide an appropriate response for the vast majority of offenders.

The good news is that policymakers have more and better information today than ever before about what causes juvenile crime and violence and what can be done to prevent it. Risk factors in young peoples' lives shown to lead to crime, such as poverty, disrupted neighborhoods and family violence, begin to influence children at birth and have a cumulative effect through adolescence and into adulthood. Later in childhood and into the teen years, other risk factors such as peer influences and access to drugs and firearms become additional predictors of criminality. State policymakers, therefore, are able to craft research-based policies and initiatives to respond effectively to these risk factors, and make inroads against juvenile crime.

Debate about rehabilitative juvenile justice versus its criminalization has led to development of a "comprehensive strategy" that seeks to broaden and balance the juvenile justice system. In doing so, it bridges child welfare and criminal justice and is attentive to the progression of juvenile delinquency into violence and adult criminality. Based heavily on risk factors and "what works," a comprehensive strategy focuses both on stemming the growing threat of juvenile crime and on expanding options for handling juvenile offenders. Done well and with adequate resources, comprehensive juvenile justice can deal more effectively with the most serious offenders, provide immediate and intermediate interventions for other delinquent youths, and offer prevention services for youths at-risk for crime and delinquency.

The Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent and Chronic Juvenile Offenders developed by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is a framework for juvenile justice that contains these key goals:

• Strengthen families;
• Support core institutions like schools and community organizations to reduce risk factors;
• Counter risk factors, or known predictors of crime, with "protective factors," which are changes in the environment;
• Intervene when delinquency first occurs;
• Establish graduated sanctions that hold offenders accountable while providing services; and
• Identify and control the small segment of serious, violent and chronic juvenile offenders.

By including families, schools and community groups, the comprehensive strategy expands juvenile justice without simply relying on "big government." In doing so, it addresses known links between crime and poverty, child abuse, family violence, drugs and weapons, and exposure to media violence. Prevention and early intervention strategies are key features of a broader approach to juvenile crime and justice. Sound research reveals that programs and policies exist that prevent juvenile crime and delinquency. The best ones are based on a continuum of care that starts early in a child's life and progresses through late adolescence.

At a time when much attention is focused on the small group of serious and violent juvenile offenders, a comprehensive, risk-focused model includes immediate and effective interventions when juveniles first commit delinquent acts as part of a planned continuum of sanctions for young offenders. First-time, nonviolent juvenile offenders receive community sanctions that hold them accountable while providing services aimed at risk reduction and their developing resiliency skills. Progressively more punitive and restrictive sanctions are provided for more serious and chronic offenders, ending with secure confinement for the most serious and violent offenders. Systemic juvenile justice reform also includes after-care programs that provide supervision and support for juvenile offenders, especially those who have been in residential or secure-care placements.

Because comprehensive juvenile justice cuts across health, education, social services, courts and corrections, it calls for integration of policies affecting those agencies and their handling of children in contact with, or at risk of being in, the child welfare, mental health, juvenile justice or adult criminal justice systems. State legislative responsibility for updating juvenile justice includes creating a policy framework that provides for cross-jurisdictional, coordinated and effective responses for at-risk youths and those who commit delinquent or criminal acts. In states where major reforms have taken place or are in process, leadership in the legislature has brought together those involved at various levels, including agencies of government, professions and others in the public and private sectors. Such groups have identified issues and moved beyond crime hype and narrow agendas to review and recommend more sophisticated responses to juvenile crime. Legislatures in a number of states have focused attention on comprehensive juvenile justice and led the way to sweeping change in how juvenile justice will be carried out.

A Connecticut law (Conn. Gen. Stat. Ann. §46b-120), modeled closely after the OJJDP comprehensive strategy, balances prevention with prosecution of "serious repeat juvenile offenders." Missouri, similarly, updated juvenile justice with a law creating dual jurisdiction for both criminal and juvenile courts for serious crimes. It also developed new job opportunity and violence prevention efforts for youths (Mo. Ann. Stat. §211.073, §32.115.5). Legislation in Texas (Tex. Fam. Code Ann. §51.01) has toughened sentencing for some juvenile offenders while establishing first-offender programs and seven-step progressive sanctions for others. And this year, Kentucky passed legislation (Kentucky Reorganization, House Bill 117, 1996) creating a new state agency for juvenile justice with responsibilities that emphasize identifying "pre-delinquent" juveniles and designing, establishing and evaluating programs that seek to prevent them from becoming tomorrow's criminals.

The fiscal realities of juvenile crime and justice are incorporated into juvenile justice reform in several states, as well, such as Colorado, Minnesota and Washington that seek to leverage juvenile crime prevention dollars with corrections expenditures. A new study from RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute in Santa Monica, Calif., compared crime prevention programs with incarceration on the basis of cost and effectiveness of preventing future crimes. RAND found that dollar for dollar, programs that encourage high-risk youth to finish school and stay out of trouble prevent five times as many crimes as tough "three strikes you're out"-type sentencing laws. This and other research supports the idea that prevention is a cost-effective key to public safety as part of a broader approach to juvenile justice.

Sections of this guide explore components of a comprehensive strategy for juvenile justice and include the following:

• Prevention in Early Childhood discusses the role of early childhood care and education in preventing crime and delinquency, what is known about how child abuse and exposure to violence in the family affect a child's propensity for violence, and health issues related to prevention of violence.
• Interventions for Youth at Risk covers the prevention and early intervention methods that are effective for school-age and teenage youths; how agency collaboration and services for children in need of supervision can be better linked to delinquency prevention; and what roles truancy enforcement, curfews, and gang prevention and intervention are playing in juvenile crime prevention.
• Graduated Sanctions in Juvenile Justice explores a continuum of sanctions to hold accountable and provide services for juvenile offenders, how both "risk assessment" and "needs assessment" work to determine appropriate dispositions and placements for juvenile offenders, and characteristics of exemplary community programs for juvenile offenders.
• Juvenile Detention and Corrections discusses the use of incarceration in juvenile justice, including crimes for which juveniles are confined; "deinstitutionalization" of juvenile offenders; juvenile corrections expenditures and how states might prioritize use of secure confinement; and programming, including after care, in juvenile corrections.
• Treating Juveniles Like Adults explores the move toward waiver or direct file of serious juvenile offenders into adult criminal courts; analysis of juvenile cases sent to adult systems; and "third tier," intermediate or dual-jurisdiction systems being created in states for serious, violent offenders.
• Emerging Issues in Juvenile Justice describes how "parental responsibility" laws are being strengthened to hold parents civilly or criminally accountable when juveniles commit crimes, or to involve them in juvenile proceedings and dispositions; moves in the states to open records and proceedings and allow for fingerprinting of some juvenile offenders; "restorative justice" as an outgrowth of victims' rights policy, and its application in juvenile justice; the growing knowledge about the importance of after care for juveniles as part of sanctions and treatment; and policy to limit juveniles' access to firearms.

Each section of the guide provides examples of state legislation addressing parts of comprehensive juvenile justice. Overall, the guide is designed as a primer for policymakers on the many issues and interests involved in juvenile justice reform. The section "Recommended Resources for More Information" provides more guidance, including a description of resources available through NCSL's project and other efforts funded by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Programs That Work

For decades, juvenile justice has been dominated by the popular but erroneous view that "nothing works." Today, a considerable amount of information exists on programs and services that do work, which policymakers can use to improve juvenile justice systems.

An examination of more than 400 programs, including both community-based and institutional treatment services, was conducted by Mark Lipsey in 1992. His study used what researchers call "meta-analyses," which synthesize results of multiple program evaluations. Overall, he reported that juveniles who receive treatment have recidivism rates about 10 percent lower than untreated juveniles in comparison groups.

The best intervention programs reduced recidivism between 20 percent and 30 percent, which translates into significant reductions in crime and its costs. What types of programs are these? According to Lipsey, the most successful programs provide behavior training or modification designed to improve interpersonal relations skills, self-control and school achievement. They also tend to be the most intensive ones in terms of the amount and duration of concentrated attention to youths.

Programs of a more psychological nature, such as individual, family and group counseling, showed only moderate positive effects on delinquents in Lipsey's analysis. And deterrence and "shock" approaches (like "scared straight") actually had negative effects; that is, youths who received these treatments had higher recidivism rates than those who did not receive them.

A national survey conducted by the National Center for Juvenile Justice collected information on 3,000 programs from juvenile justice professionals, including judges, probation officers and other court personnel. Reviewing these programs, researchers designated 425 of them as "promising interventions." Selected programs include a wide variety of academic, skill development, mentoring, substance abuse treatment, and outdoor programs, with target populations ranging from at-risk children and runaways to gang members and other serious offenders. The compilation (see Recommended Resources for More Information section) demonstrates that there are many models to look to in designing more effective juvenile justice systems.

NCSL Contacts For More Information

Donna Lyons--Criminal Justice

Mary Fairchild--Juvenile Justice

Other NCSL Links

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