The National Juvenile Defender Center released the new National Juvenile Defense Standards in February 2013. The standards recognize the role and duties of the juvenile defender in the juvenile court system. They seek to strengthen and guide the ethical and professional performance of the juvenile defense attorney. The standards represent a national approach to systematizing high-quality defense practice in juvenile court.
Effects and Consequences of Underage Drinking, a bulletin from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), provides findings from a literature review on the effects of underage drinking on youths' physical, emotional, and neurological health. It also discusses the personal, legal, and economic consequences of underage drinking.
The AMBER Best Practices guide from the collects the most effective and efficient strategies provided by AMBER Alert partners and practitioners for recovering missing or abducted children.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, states moved away from the traditional emphasis on rehabilitation in the juvenile justice system toward tougher, more punitive treatment of youth, including adult handling. During the past decade, juvenile crime rates have declined, and state legislatures are rebalancing approaches to juvenile crime and delinquency in order to identify methods that produce better results for kids at lower cost. Trends in Juvenile Justice Legislation 2001-2011, a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, summarizes 2001-2011 juvenile justice legislation in all 50 states and describes the direction of state juvenile justice policy.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Statistical Briefing Book provides access to detailed statistics on a variety of juvenile justice topics and allows users to create customized tables on juvenile populations, arrests, court cases, and custody populations.
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) released the Juvenile Arrests 2009 bulletin summarizing 2009 juvenile crime and arrest data reported by law enforcement agencies in the FBI report Crime in the United States 2009. Juvenile arrests for violent offenses declined 10% between 2008 and 2009, and overall juvenile arrests fell 9% during that same period. Here is the Juvenile Arrests 2009 bulletin. For a brief OJJDP description, click here.
Locking up juvenile offenders costs states about $88,000 per youth annually and doesn't pay off from a public safety or rehabilitation perspective, according to a report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report found that states that lowered juvenile confinement rates the most saw greater declines in juvenile crime. Here is a state-by-state comparison of juveniles in custody in 1997 and 2007. Here is a comparison of juvenile incarceration budgets by state in 2008. Here is a comparison of state juvenile incarceration rate changes between 1997 and 2007. Here is the Issue Brief.
This study by the National Center for School Engagement focuses on the connection between bullying, and truancy and low academic achievement and assesses whether engaging students in academics or extracurricular activities mediates these factors. Funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the study recommends strategies for schools.
This policy brief from the National Education Policy Center reports that children of color are far more likely to be suspended or expelled from school that white students. It finds that removing children from school for minor disciplinary issues results in students missing important instructional time and does not improve the other students' education. An accompanying brief recommends statutory code changes to improve data collection and advance discipline alternatives.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police has identified the challenges and training needs of law enforcement when working with juvenile crime, delinquency, and victimization. The report, "Juvenile Justice Training Needs Assessment: A Survey of Law Enforcement," includes data on department training budgets and needs, juvenile justice operations, and important juvenile justice issues.
This new report from the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics compiles and analyzes the latest data on issues related to children and families from 22 federal agencies. it includes statistics on such things as family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment, behavior, and education. This year's report also includes a special feature on adoption.
A groundbreaking study of nearly 1 million public secondary students in Texas found that the majority of them were suspended or expelled at least once between seventh and twelfth grade. The study, by the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M, also found that students who are suspended or expelled are more likely to repeat a grade and are less likely to graduate. It also showed that African-American students and children with particular educational disabilities who qualify for special education were suspended and expelled at especially high rates.
Some states have recently started shifting away from those policies in an effort to address underlying personal, family, and community issues. This document from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice lays out shifting policies for deciding when to confine status offenders and when to refer them to services. Status offenses are acts that would not be criminal when taken by adults but are subject to juvenile court sanctions for minors. They include truancy, running away and curfew violations.
The Michigan Guide to Compliance with Laws Governing the Placement of Juveniles in Secure Facilities is a handy reference guide for those making decisions about juvenile detentions. This document was supported by a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, through the Michigan Committee on Juvenile Justice and the Bureau of Juvenile Justice Federal Grants Unit within the Michigan Department of Human Services.