On this page, the Prison Policy Initiative has curated all of the research about youth in the criminal justice system that we know of. For research on other criminal justice topics, see our Research Library homepage.
(New)Only Young Once: Alabama's Overreliance on School Pushout and For-Profit Youth Incarceration Southern Poverty Law Center, December, 2024“Despite the inconsistency of local district policies, one thing that is consistent across the state is that Black students are disproportionately suspended from public schools.”
(New)An examination of conditions of confinement: Incarcerated/detained youth in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Corrections Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate, November, 2024“Between January 1, 2024 and September 30, 2024, there were 192 placements in RAMP (disciplinary confinement), involving 66 youth. This represents a significant increase over 2023.”
(New)Only Young Once: The Systemic Harm of Florida's School-to-Prison Pipeline and Youth Legal System, Southern Poverty Law Center, September, 2024“Florida is the national leader in the total number of incarcerated children in both adult prisons and jail facilities combined as of the most recent data available.”
Protect and Redirect: America's Growing Movement to Divert Youth Out of the Justice System Sentencing Project, March, 2024“Among the most promising recent developments in youth diversion is the growing focus on restorative justice alternatives to formal court processing.”
(New)Only Young Once: The Case for Mississippi's Investment in Youth Decarceration Southern Poverty Law Center, October, 2023“Mississippi's approach to youth justice is built on debunked notions of Black criminality, inadequate funding for community resources, and a school system that suspends a Black student every 15 minutes.”
(New)Only Young Once: The Urgent Need for Reform of Louisiana's Youth Justice System Southern Poverty Law Center, July, 2023“From 2017-2018, Louisiana had the third-highest out-of-school suspension rate (8.98%) and second-highest expulsion rate (0.81%) in the country.”
Incarceration of Youths in an Adult Correctional Facility and Risk of Premature DeathIan A. Silver, Daniel C. Semenza, and Joseph L. Nedelec, July, 2023“Approximately 8% of youths incarcerated in adult correctional facilities were estimated to die by the age of 39 years. In comparison, just over 2% of youths without legal system contact before [age 18] were estimated to have died by the age of 39 years.”
Only Young Once: The Urgent Need for Reform of Louisiana's Youth Justice System Southern Poverty Law Center, July, 2023“Incarcerating a young person in Louisiana for one year ($156,570) is more expensive than the annual costs of enrollment in Louisiana public schools, Tulane University, and Louisiana State University combined ($118,571).”
Effective Alternatives to Youth IncarcerationSentencing Project, June, 2023“Effective alternative-to-incarceration programs produce better public safety outcomes than incarceration, at far lower costs, and do far less damage to young people's futures.”
Inequities in Mental Health Services: A 16-Year Longitudinal Study of Youth in the Justice System Maria Jose Luna, Karen M. Abram, David A. Aaby, Leah J. Welty, & Linda A. Teplin, June, 2023“Among a random sample of youth experiencing detention in Chicago in 1995, less than 20% of youth who needed mental health services received them in the following 20 years.”
Racial and ethnic differences in the consequences of school suspension for arrestBenjamin W. Fisher & Alex O. Widdowson, June, 2023“Within a given wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort, students who experienced an increase in suspension also experienced an increase of approximately 56.2% in their odds of being arrested in that same wave.”
Electronically Monitored Youth: Stigma and Negative Social Functioning Paywall :(Marijana M. Kotlaja & Lindsey E. Wylie, March, 2023“Juveniles who felt more stigmatized for being on an EM, also experienced greater negative experiences within their social world and social functioning than youth who did not feel stigmatized.”
Racial disparities in youth pretrial detention: a retrospective cohort study grounded in critical race theoryAndy Wen, Noah R. Gubner, Michelle M. Garrison, & Sarah Cusworth Walker, March, 2023“After factoring in gender, age, crime severity, previous offenses, and variation between counties, our analyses show that Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and American Indian/Alaskan Native youth are more likely to experience pretrial detention than white youth.”
Why Youth Incarceration Fails: An Updated Review of the Evidence Sentencing Project, December, 2022“Compared to probation and other community alternatives, incarceration most often results in higher rates of rearrest and reincarceration [for young people].”
Mapping Transformative Schools: From Punishment to Promise National Juvenile Justice Network, December, 2022“Young people we talked to discussed the wide use of suspensions and expulsions for minor infractions, differences in suspensions and expulsions based on race and gender, and the lasting harm to students when they are suspended.”
Racial and Ethnic Disparities at the Front Door of Massachusetts' Juvenile Justice System: Understanding the Factors Leading to Overrepresentation of Black and Latino Youth Entering the System Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Policy and Data Board, November, 2022“[Racial] disparities are largest at the "front door" of the system-- the arrest and application for delinquency complaint stage. These early disparities matter.”
Health Care Access and Use Among Children & Adolescents Exposed to Parental Incarceration - United States, 2019 Rohan Khazanchi, Nia J. Heard-Garris, & Tyler N.A. Winkelman, October, 2022“Parental incarceration was associated with an additional 123,703 children with no usual source of care, 114,795 with forgone dental care needs, 75,434 with delayed mental health care needs, and 53,678 with forgone mental health care needs”
Diversion: A Hidden Key to Combating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice Sentencing Project, August, 2022“Of the youth referred to juvenile or family courts for delinquency each year, just 7% are accused of serious violent offenses...[most] youth accused of delinquency should be diverted rather than arrested and formally processed in a juvenile court.”
Diversion: A Hidden Key to Combating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice Sentencing Project, August, 2022“Nationwide in 2019, 52% of delinquency cases involving white youth were handled informally (diverted), far higher than the share of cases diverted involving Black youth (40%).”
Reimagining Restitution: New Approaches to Support Youth and Communities Juvenile Law Center, July, 2022“Across the country, juvenile courts impose restitution orders on youth too young to hold a job, still in full-time school, and often living in families already struggling to get by. This process doesn't work for anyone.”
Extended Injustice: Court Fines and Fees for Young People are Counterproductive, Particularly Harm Black Young People, Families, and Communi The Commonwealth Institute, July, 2022“While detailed Virginia data on the impact of juvenile court fines and fees by race is not available, analyses from other states shows that Black youth pay the highest amount in fines as a result of greater frequency and duration of probation conditions.”
Justice for Emerging Adults after Jones: The Rapidly Developing Use of Neuroscience to Extend Eighth Amendment Miller Protections to Defendants Ages 18 and Older Francis X. Shen et al, June, 2022“This Essay provides the first empirical analysis of how courts are receiving the argument to raise the age for constitutional protections and introduces a publicly accessible, searchable database containing 494 such cases.”
Double Punished: Locked Out of Opportunity Bellwether Education Partners, June, 2022“In many states, we found that multiple agencies are involved in supporting juvenile justice education, creating a system of fragmented responsibility.”
Too Many Locked DoorsSentencing Project, March, 2022“Given the short- and long-term damages stemming from youth out of home placement, it is vital to understand its true scope. In 2019, there were more than 240,000 instances of a young person detained, committed, or both in the juvenile justice system.”
Parole Revoked: Justifying Rerelease for Juvenile Lifers Paywall :(Stuti S. Kokkalera and Beatriz Amalfi Marques, March, 2022“Our analysis reveals that most parole revocations stem from technical violations rather than any new criminal activity...revocation review decisions avoid acknowledging the obstacles in juvenile lifer reentry.”
Student Arrests in Allegheny County Schools: The Need for Transparency and Accountability ACLU Pennsylvania, January, 2022“Black students with disabilities (served under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) accounted for 2.3% of total student enrollment, but 8.4% of students referred to law enforcement and 9.1% of students who were arrested.”
Can Restorative Justice Conferencing Reduce Recidivism? Evidence From the Make-It-Right Program (Working Paper) Yotam Shem-Tov, Steven Raphael and Alissa Skog, January, 2022“Assignment to [a restorative justice program] reduces the probability of a rearrest within six months by 19 percentage points, a 44 percent reduction relative to the control group...the reduction in recidivism persists even four years after randomization.”
Re-Arrest Among 16 Year-Olds Arrested In The First Year Of Raise The AgeMarian Gewirtz, New York City Criminal Justice Agency, December, 2021“The analysis indicates that the raise-the-age age/year is a statistically significant predictor of re-arrest over time in both sets of models after accounting for the other included variables.”
Youth in Adult Courts, Jails, and PrisonsSentencing Project, December, 2021“In 2019, on any given night, there were 3,500 children sleeping in adult jails and prisons.”
Federal Sentencing of Child Pornography: Production Offenses United States Sentencing Commission, October, 2021“Notably, in 2020 alone, the Cyber Tipline of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 21.7 million reports of child sexual abuse imagery, online child exploitation and enticement, child sexual molestation, and child sex trafficking.”
Effect of Juvenile Justice Fee Repeal on Financial Sanctions Borne by FamiliesJaclyn E. Chambers, Karin D. Martin, and Jennifer L. Skeem, September, 2021“We estimate that the likelihood of experiencing any financial sanction was 22.2% lower post-repeal [in Alameda County] compared to pre-repeal, and the total amount of sanctions was $1,583 (or 70%) lower.”
Replacing School Police with Services that Work: Better Ways to Improve School Safety and Reduce Discipline Disparities Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, August, 2021“The ongoing presence of police in schools increases school arrests, instances of physical restraint, and suspensions and expulsions, all of which are disproportionately experienced by students with disabilities, especially students of color.”
Detention Diversion Advocacy Program (DDAP) EvaluationMoira DeNike, July, 2021“The findings very clearly indicate that DDAP participants had a lower likelihood of any subsequent justice referrals and of any subsequent felony referrals as compared with a similarly-situated set of non-DDAP-served youth.”(DDAP is a juvenile diversion program in San Francisco, operated by the nonprofit organization, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.)
Bringing More Teens Home: Raising the Age Without Expanding Secure Confinement in the Youth Justice System Sentencing Project, June, 2021“Despite claims to the contrary, bringing these youth back under juvenile jurisdiction did not significantly increase costs, confinement, or crime.”
Federal Sentencing of Child Pornography: Non-Production Offenses United States Sentencing Commission, June, 2021“The average sentence [for non-production child pornography offenses] increased more gradually, from 91 months in fiscal year 2005 to 103 months in fiscal year 2019.”
Youth in Adult and Juvenile Correctional Facilities: Comparison of Services and Behavioral Management Paywall :(Park, Insun and Christopher J. Sullivan, May, 2021“Youth in adult facilities had similar or more access to institutional programs but also exhibited relatively higher involvement in misconduct based on official reports [compared to youth in juvenile residential facilities].”
Juvenile Life Without Parole: An Overview Sentencing Project, May, 2021“The United States stands alone as the only nation that sentences people to life without parole for crimes committed before turning 18.”
Race, Ethnicity, and Official Perceptions in the Juvenile Justice System: Extending the Role of Negative Attributional Stereotypes Paywall :(Laura Beckman and Nancy Rodriguez, April, 2021“Using juvenile probation file content (N = 285) that quantitatively captures court officials' perceptions...youth of color are more likely to be linked to negative internal attributions in comparison with White youth.”
Prevalence, Comorbidity, and Continuity of Psychiatric Disorders in a 15-Year Longitudinal Study of Youths Involved in the Juvenile Justice System Teplin, Linda et al., April, 2021“Among participants with a [psychiatric] disorder at baseline, 64.3% of males and 34.8% of females had a disorder 15 years later. Compared with females, males had 3.37 times the odds of persisting with a psychiatric disorder 15 years after baseline.”
Adolescent Protective and Risk Factors for Incarceration through Early AdulthoodPaywall :(Elizabeth S. Barnert et al, April, 2021“Adolescent protective factors against incarceration onset and higher incarceration frequency centered on education, including a higher grade point average and a higher likelihood of having future plans to attend college.”
Due Process in the Time of COVID: Defenders as First Responders in a Juvenile Court System Struggling with the COVID-19 Pandemic National Juvenile Defender Center, March, 2021“The shift to technology-based communications and remote hearings threatens young people's constitutional rights, including fundamental aspects of effective legal representation, due process, and access to courts.”
Racial Disparities in Youth Incarceration PersistSentencing Project, February, 2021“In ten years, the United States has cut youth incarceration in half.1 While the reduction is impressive, youth involvement in the juvenile justice system continues to impact youth of color disproportionately.”
2020 State Ratings Report: Human Rights Protections for Children in the U.S. Justice System Human Rights for Kids, November, 2020“Our findings reveal that the overwhelming majority of the nation - 42 states - have made minimal to no efforts to create a legal framework to protect the human rights of children in the justice system.”
Specialized Parole and Resentencing Laws Focused on Emerging Adults: New and proposed reforms in CA, IL, CO, D.C., and FL Emerging Adult Justice Project, September, 2020“Essentially, emerging adults are viewed as less culpable and more malleable by virtue of their age, and the statutes and proposals examined in this factsheet codify that conception.”
Youth Justice Under the Coronavirus: Linking Public Health Protections with the Movement for Youth Decarceration Sentencing Project, September, 2020“Despite almost two decades of declines in U.S. youth incarceration, The Sentencing Project reveals more than 1,800 incarcerated youth have tested positive for COVID-19 since March, including more than 300 cases in Florida and Texas.”
Sticker Shock 2020: The Cost of Youth Incarceration Justice Policy Institute, July, 2020“The average state cost for the secure confinement of a young person is now $588 per day, or $214,620 per year, a 44 percent increase from 2014.”
The Presence of School Resource Officers (SROs) in America's SchoolsJustice Policy Institute, July, 2020“Allowing police officers to needlessly handle minor infractions in schools often marks a student's first contact with the criminal justice system, potentially setting them up for a lifetime of collateral consequences.”
Youth Detention Admissions Remain Low, But Releases Stall Despite COVID-19The Annie E. Casey Foundation, July, 2020“In the months since the pandemic emerged in March, the disparities in detention that disadvantage Black youth have gotten worse, solely because Black youth have been released at a slower rate than their white peers.”
States Must Do More to Protect Youth Behind Bars During COVID-19 PandemicYouth First Initiative, May, 2020“Overall, we found that few states reported any public information, data or actions to protect youth during the COVID-19 pandemic and only a handful of states publicly reported actions to adequately protect youth.”
Second Look for Justice, Safety and Savings: A Plan to Address Rehabilitated Youth Serving Extreme Sentences in Adult Prisons Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, May, 2020“Texas' 40-year requirement before parole can be considered a harsh outlier, rendering its ban on juvenile LWOP virtually meaningless because the "remedy" is equally punitive and extreme.”
Resentencing of Juvenile Lifers: The Philadelphia Experience Tarika Daftary-Kapur and Tina M. Zottoli, April, 2020“269 lifers have been re-sentenced in Philadelphia and 174 have been released. Six (3.5%) have been re-arrested. Charges were dropped in four of the cases and two (1%) resulted in new convictions.”
At Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Dramatic and Rapid Reductions in Youth DetentionThe Annie E. Casey Foundation, April, 2020“A survey of juvenile justice agencies in 30 state finds that the number of young people in local secure detention centers fell by 24% in March 2020, a sign that the coronavirus pandemic is dramatically altering the juvenile justice system.”
Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2019 Prison Policy Initiative, December, 2019“On any given day, over 48,000 youth in the United States are confined in facilities away from home as a result of juvenile justice or criminal justice involvement.”
Raise The Floor: Increasing the Minimum Age of Prosecution of Youth as Adults Campaign for Youth Justice, September, 2019“Efforts by state legislatures to set or raise the minimum age of transfer are critical first steps toward protecting children and youth from a system that was not created to serve or rehabilitate them.”
On Track: How well are states preparing youth in the juvenile justice system for employment? CSG Justice Center, September, 2019“Most incarcerated youth are not provided the workforce development services necessary to obtain viable employment in the community after release.”
A Review of Recreation Requirements in U.S. Juvenile Justice FacilitiesPaywall :(Maria Leon, Corliss Outley, Miner Marchbanks, Brandy Kelly Pryor, August, 2019“There is not a shared definition of recreation, only 70% of states have daily mandatory minimums requirements, only 44% of states require youth be given time outside, and only 56% of states include justifications for denying youth access to recreation.”
"Nothing Good Happens in There:" Closing and Repurposing Youth Detention Facilities in California Impact Justice, July, 2019“Our experience in this field has demonstrated time and again that simply closing a facility is not enough: The real focus of the work must be in developing and implementing repurposing strategies which truly benefit the community.”
Promoting Equity with Youth DiversionR Street, July, 2019“The full potential of diversion policies and programs are undermined when youth of different racial and ethnic backgrounds do not have the same opportunities to be diverted and are not offered programs with their individual needs in mind.”
Restorative Justice and Youth Offenders in NebraskaKristen M. Blankley and Alisha Caldwell Jimenez, June, 2019“Although Nebraska's statewide victim/youth conference program is developing, the program is promising and offers some opportunities for other restorative justice programs around the country.”
Not in Isolation: How to Reduce Room Confinement While Increasing Safety in Youth Facilities Stop Solitary for Kids, June, 2019“It is more critical than ever that youth justice facility and agency administrators develop alternatives to room confinement consistent with evolving best practices, professional standards, and an understanding of adolescent development.”
Girls in the Juvenile Justice SystemOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, April, 2019“More than half of all female delinquency cases involved black or Hispanic youth.”
Promoting a New Direction for Youth Justice Strategies to Fund a Community-Based Continuum of Care and Opportunity Urban Institute, March, 2019“Structural inequalities result in the reality that some communities simply do not have the resources to offer all youth the same access to education, jobs, health care, supports, and opportunities that promote healthy development and safe neighborhoods.”
Moving Beyond Youth Prisons: Lessons from New York City's Implementation of Close to Home Columbia University Justice Lab, February, 2019(New York City's Close to Home initiative represented more than moving jurisdictional control over residential services from one place to another. Rather, it was a fundamental shift in philosophy, which prioritized communities over incarceration.)
Juvenile Arrests, 2016Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, December, 2018“Juvenile arrests have been on the decline for more than a decade, but patterns vary by offense and demographic group.”
Breaking open the "black box": How risk assessments undermine judges' perceptions of young people Prison Policy Initiative, August, 2018“Algorithmic risk assessments treat youth as a one-dimensional factor, pointing only to higher risk.”
Young Adults and Community Supervision The Need for a Developmentally Appropriate Approach to Probation Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, August, 2018“The purpose of this report is to highlight evidence-based probation practices that improve outcomes, strengthening public safety and changing the life trajectory of young adults who might otherwise spend years in prison.”
The Price of Justice: The High Cost of "Free" Counsel for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System Juvenile Law Center, July, 2018(The report shows that requiring youth and their families to pay for the cost of court-appointed counsel forces youth deep into the criminal justice system, keeps them under justice system supervision longer, and pushes families deeper into poverty.)
Fact Check: A Survey of Available Data on Juvenile Crime in Baltimore City Abell Foundation, June, 2018“While there has been an increase in the number of juveniles charged as adults for serious crimes, the number of these cases remains relatively small--less than 10 percent of all juvenile arrests.”
Detention of Juveniles in Illinois Recommendations to Right-Size Detention through Reforms and Fiscal Incentives to Develop Community-Based Alternatives. Juvenile Justice Initiative, April, 2018“This report includes a series of recommendations to "right-size" juvenile detention in Illinois.”
The Juvenile Record MythJoy Radice, March, 2018(This report illuminates the variety of ways states treat juvenile records â€" revealing that state confidentiality, sealing, and expungement provisions often provide far less protection than those terms suggest.)
Youth Transfer: The Importance of Individualized Factor Review Campaign for Youth Justice, March, 2018(This brief discusses the importance of weighing individual factors when judges and prosecutors consider the transfer of youth to the adult system, as well as recent state-level reforms addressing youth transfer.)
Parents as Partners: Family Connection and Youth Incarceration Children and Family Justice Center, February, 2018(This report shows that family and community-based responses to youth offending result in better public safety outcomes than more punitive measures such as incarceration.)
Locking up youth with adults: An update Prison Policy Initiative, February, 2018“Incarcerating youth in adult facilities is even more harmful than incarcerating them with people their own age.”
Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie Prison Policy Initiative, February, 2018“This report provides an introductory snapshot of what happens when justice-involved youth are held by the state: where they are held, under what conditions, and for what offenses.”
"Don't Look Around": A Window into Inhumane Conditions for Youth at NORCOR Disability Rights Oregon, December, 2017“A lack of oversight and accountability has allowed Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility (NORCOR) to neglect the basic mental health and social development needs of kids in custody.”
50,000 children: The Geography of America's Dysfunctional & Racially Disparate Youth Incarceration Complex Youth First, October, 2017“While the US Department of Justice reports that youth incarceration rates have decreased 50% between 1999 and 2013, too many youth are still locked up, and racial disparities among committed youth have widened.”
Native Disparities in Youth IncarcerationThe Sentencing Project, October, 2017“Native youth were three times as likely to be incarcerated as white youth, according to data collected in October 2015.”
The Intersection of Juvenile Courts and Exclusionary School DisciplineNational Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, October, 2017(This report provides real-world strategies to reduce the number of youth who unnecessarily come into contact with law enforcement and the juvenile justice system.)
Raising the Bar: State Trends in Keeping Youth Out of Adult Courts (2015-2017) Campaign for Youth Justice, October, 2017(Between 2015 & 2017, nine states and the District of Columbia have passed laws to limit or remove youth from adult facilities. In Oregon and New York, lawmakers passed bills in 2017 to categorically ban incarcerating youth with adults in the coming year.)
Latino Disparities in Youth IncarcerationThe Sentencing Project, October, 2017“Latino youth are 65 percent more likely to be detained or committed than their white peers, according to data collected in October 2015.”
Reflections on New National Data on LGBQ/GNCT Youth in the Justice SystemHarvard Kennedy School, September, 2017(12-13% of boys in the justice system identify as gay, bisexual, questioning, gender nonconforming, or transgender (GBQ/GNCT), while 40% of girls identify as LBQ/GNCT. And, of these LGBQ/GNCT youth, 85% nationally are of color.)
Emerging Adults and the Criminal Justice System: Specialized Policies, Practices & Programs Loyola University Chicago Center for Criminal Justice Research, Policy and Practice, September, 2017“This document provides information on policies, programs and services dedicated and / or available to emerging adults - generally defined as 18 - 25 year olds or a subset thereof - in contact with criminal justice systems across the United States.”
Juvenile Life Without Parole: An Overview The Sentencing Project, August, 2017“The United States stands alone as the only nation that sentences people to life without parole for crimes committed before turning 18. This briefing paper reviews the Supreme Court precedents that limited the use of JLWOP and the challenges that remain.”
Just Kids: When Misbehaving Is a Crime Vera Institute of Justice, August, 2017“As policymakers and practitioners across the country look to reduce mass incarceration, status offenses demand attention as early and improper points of entry into the juvenile justice system, and potentially the criminal justice system more broadly.”
Summary of School Safety StatisticsNational Institute of Justice, July, 2017“On the national level, crime at K-12 schools in the U.S., including violent crime, decreased from 1992 to 2013. Though violent crime against students increased from 2010 to 2013, the violent crime rate in 2013 was still lower than in 1992.”
Electronic Monitoring of Youth in the California Juvenile Justice SystemUC Berkeley School of Law, July, 2017“The report demonstrates electronic monitoring programs can impose dozens of strict and inflexible rules on participants. Financial burdens imposed by electronic monitoring programs disproportionately hurt low-income families.”
Reducing Youth Arrests Keeps Kids Healthy and Successful: A Health Analysis of Youth Arrest in Michigan Human Impact Partners, June, 2017“We evaluate the health and equity impacts of youth arrest (for kids under the age of 17) in Michigan, with a focus on the city of Detroit, and Wayne and Washtenaw Counties.”
Building Communities, Changing Lives The NYC Justice Corps Community Benefit Projects Prisoner Reentry Institute, June, 2017“When justice system-involved young adults seek an opportunity to change, too often they expe- rience continued stigmatization, including barriers to education, employment, and housing.”
Indicators of School Crime and SafetyBureau of Justice Statistics, May, 2017“In 2015, among students ages 12-18, there were about 841,100 nonfatal victimizations at school and 545,100 nonfatal victimizations away from school.”
Raise the Age: 17-Year-Olds in the Criminal Justice System Texas Appleseed, April, 2017“Texas is one of only seven states in which 17-year olds accused of committing crimes are automatically shuffled into the adult criminal justice system rather than the juvenile justice system, regardless of the crime.”
Gender and Trauma, Somatic Interventions for Girls in Juvenile Justice: Implications for Policy and Practice Rebecca Epstein and Thalia González, Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, April, 2017“Trauma-informed, gender-responsive, and culturally competent somatic interventions can serve as a critical component of physical and mental health approaches for system-involved girls.”
Bullies in Blue: Origins and Consequences of School Policing American Civil Liberties Union, April, 2017“[A]t at its origins, school policing enforced social control over Black and Latino youth who could no longer be kept out of neighborhoods and schools through explicitly discriminatory laws.”
Making Families Pay: The Harmful, Unlawful, and Costly Practice of Charging Juvenile Administrative Fees in California Stephanie Campos-Bui, Jeffrey Selbin, Hamza Jaka, Tim Kline, Ahmed Lavalais, Alynia Phillips, Abby Ridley-Kerr, University of California Berkeley School of Law, March, 2017“[W]e did not find a single county in which fee practices were both fair and cost-effective. Counties either improperly charge low-income families and net little revenue, or they fairly assess families’ inability to pay and net even less.”
Breaking Down the Walls: Lessons Learned From Successful State Campaigns to Close Youth Prisons Youth First Initiative, March, 2017“No state has completely dismantled the youth prison model that has been the signature feature of juvenile justice since the early 1800s. Yet, successful campaigns have resulted in the closure of dozens of youth prisons in all regions of the country.”
Raising The Age: Shifting to a Safer and More Effective Juvenile Justice System [Executive Summary] Justice Policy Institute, March, 2017“Over the past ten years, half of the states that had previously excluded all 16- and/or 17-year-olds from juvenile court based solely on their age have changed their laws.”
Juvenile InJustice: Charging Youth as Adults is Ineffective, Biased, and Harmful Human Impact Partners, February, 2017“This practice undermines the purpose of the juvenile court system, pursues punishment rather than rehabilitation, and conflicts with what we know from developmental science[...]and reinforce the racial inequities that characterize the justice system.”
Improving Approaches to Serving Young Adults in the Justice SystemJustice Policy Institute, December, 2016“Over the past year, a number of different advocates, policymakers, practitioners, funders and directly impacted individuals and families have sought to flesh out what a more effective approach to serving 18 to 24-year-olds”
How Tough on Crime Became Tough on Kids: Prosecuting Teenage Drug Charges in Adult Courts The Sentencing Project, December, 2016“The ability of states to send teenagers into the adult system on nonviolent offenses, a relic of the war on drugs, threatens the futures of those teenagers who are arrested on drug charges, regardless of whether or not they are convicted.”
Beyond Bars: Keeping Young People Safe at Home and Out of Youth Prisons The National Collaboration for Youth, December, 2016“The youth prison is the signature feature of nearly every state juvenile justice system even though it is harmful, ineffective and expensive.”
False Hope: How Parole Systems Fail Youth Serving Extreme Sentences ACLU, November, 2016“Parole boards today are both ill-equipped to provide mean- ingful individualized review and resistant to releasing people who, even if they were children at the time, committed a serious offense.”
The Future of Youth Justice: A Community-Based Alternative to the Youth Prison Model Patrick McCarthy, Vincent Schiraldi, and Miriam Shark, October, 2016“Closing these failed institutions requires a clear-headed, common-sense, bipartisan policy approach, and a commitment to replace these facilities with effective alternatives that are already available.”
Violent Crime Arrests of Youth in California: Expected to Decline Through 2020 Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, October, 2016“Based on the declining rates of youth arrest over the last several decades, California can expected continued decline and historically low rates of violent felony arrest of youth through 2020.”
Righting Wrongs: The Five-Year Groundswell of State Bans on Life Without Parole For Children The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, September, 2016“In just five years--from 2011 to 2016--the number of states that ban death-in-prison sentences for children has more than tripled.”
Why do we lock juveniles up for life and throw away the key? Race plays a big part. Prison Policy Initiative, September, 2016“The Phillips Black Project found that black youth are twice as likely to receive a juvenile life without parole sentence compared to their white peers for committing the same crime.”
Juvenile Life Without Parole in Wayne County: Time to Join the National Consensus Fair Punishment Project, July, 2016“Wayne County makes up only 18% of the state's population, yet it accounts for at least 40% of the individuals serving these [juvenile life without parole] sentences in Michigan.”
The Prosecution of Youth as Adults: A county-level analysis of prosecutorial direct file in California and its disparate impact on youth of color Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, W. Haywood Burn's Institute, National Center for Youth Law, June, 2016“This report...presents county rates of direct file compared to the youth population and rates of youth arrests, and highlights racial and ethnic disparities.”
Justice by Geography: Do politics influence the prosecution of youth as adults? Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, June, 2016“Granting prosecutors the sole discretion to determine whether a youth is tried in adult court contributes to a system of extreme disparities.”
Youth in Residential Placement, 2013U.S. Department of Justice, May, 2016“This survey details the characteristics of youth held for delinquency and status offenses in public and private residential facilities in every state.”
Stemming The Rising Tide: Racial & Ethnic Disparities in Youth Incarceration & Strategies for Change W. Haywood Burns Institute, May, 2016“Youth are being incarcerated for longer periods of time, with Black and Latino youth having the longest stays out of home.”
A Legislated Study of Raising the Age of Juvenile Jurisdiction in Louisiana The Future of 17-Year-Olds in the Louisiana Justice System Institute for Public Health and Justice, February, 2016“Lousiana should strongly consider raising the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to include 17-year-old offenders.”
The Truth About Juvenile False ConfessionsAmerican Bar Association, February, 2016“People, including judges and juries, are very reluctant to believe that a confession might be false - and the result, too often, can be a wrongful conviction.”
Growing Up Locked DownACLU of Nebraska, January, 2016“Before they are old enough to get a driver’s license, enlist in the armed forces, or vote, some children in Nebraska are held in solitary confinement for days, weeks--and even months.”
Declines in Youth Commitments and Facilities in the 21st CenturySentencing Project, December, 2015“Between 2001 and 2013, the number of juveniles committed to juvenile facilities after an adjudication of delinquency (or, as was the case for 413 juveniles, conviction in criminal court) fell from 76,262 to 35,659.”
Zero Tolerance: How States Comply With PREA's Youthful Inmate Standard Campaign for Youth Justice, December, 2015“Despite evidence based research highlighting the harms of placing youth in adult facilities and the long term costs of incarceration to youth and society, 1200 youth are in state prisons on any given day across the country.”
Health Disparities in Drug- and Alcohol-Use Disorders: A 12-Year Longitudinal Study of Youths After Detention American Journal of Public Health, December, 2015“Drug abuse appears to have greater consequences for racial/ethnic minorities, especially African Americans, than for non-Hispanic Whites.”
A Profile of Youth in the Los Angeles County Delinquency Prevention ProjectNational Council on Crime and Delinquency, December, 2015(This report outlines how the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services used an actuarial screening assessment to classify youth in the child welfare system by their likelihood of subsequent juvenile justice involvement.)
Juvenile Commitment Rate Drops 53%The Pew Charitable Trusts Public Safety Performance Project, November, 2015“From 2001 to 2013, the U.S. juvenile commitment rate declined 53 percent, according to data recently released by the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.”
Locked Out: Improving Educational and Vocational Outcomes for Incarcerated Youth Council of State Governments Justice Center, November, 2015“At least one in three incarcerated youth is identified as needing or already receiving special education services--a rate nearly four times higher than youth attending school in the community.”
The Conditioning Effects of Race and Gender on the Juvenile Court Outcomes of Delinquent and "Neglected" Types of Offenders Justice Quarterly, November, 2015(The main inverse effect for status, probation violation, contempt, misdemeanor property, felony property, felony person, drugs, and other offenses with detention, was conditioned by whether the youth was Black.)
Gender Injustice: System-Level Juvenile Justice Reforms for Girls The National Crittenton Foundation; National Women's Law Center, September, 2015“Despite decades of attention, the proportion of girls in the juvenile justice system has increased and their challenges have remained remarkably consistent, resulting in deeply rooted systemic gender injustice.”
Community-Based Responses to Justice-Involved Young AdultsHarvard Kennedy School Program in Criminal Justice, September, 2015“[T]oday’s neurobiological and developmental research suggests that young people ages 18-24 are more developmentally akin to juveniles than fully mature adults.”
Violent Death in Delinquent Youth After DetentionOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, September, 2015“The vast majority of deaths among delinquent youth were homicides from gunshot wounds.”
Locked In: Interactions with the Criminal Justice and Child Welfare Systems for LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Who Engage in Survival Sex Urban Institute, September, 2015“Interviews with these youth reveal that over 70 percent had been arrested at least once, with many reporting frequent arrest for "quality-of-life" and misdemeanor crimes other than prostitution offenses.”
No Hope: Re-Examining Lifetime Sentences for Juvenile Offenders The Phillips Black Project, September, 2015“Nine states have abolished JLWOP after Miller, bringing the current number of jurisdictions completely banning the sentence to fifteen.”
Juvenile Prisons: National consensus and alternatives Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, August, 2015“Over a 12-month period, OCA found at least 532 physical restraints and 134 uses of mechanical restraints at these facilities.”
Studying Deterrence Among High-Risk AdolescentsOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, August, 2015“There was no meaningful reduction in offending or arrests in response to more severe punishment (e.g., correctional placement, longer stays).”
Debtors' Prison for Kids? The High Cost of Fines and Fees in the Juvenile Justice System Juvenile Law Center, August, 2015“Youth who can’t pay for alternative programs may enter the juvenile justice system when a wealthier peer would not.”
Juvenile Court Statistics 2013National Center for Juvenile Justice, July, 2015“Juvenile Court Statistics 2013 describes delinquency cases handled between 1985 and 2013 and petitioned status offense cases handled between 1995 and 2013 by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction.”
Investigation of the St. Louis County Family Court St. Louis, Missouri Department of Justice, July, 2015“Black children are almost one-and-a-half times (1.46) more likely than White children to have their cases handled formally, even after introducing control variables such as gender, age, risk factors, and severity of the allegation.”
Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2014Bureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2015“In 2013, among students ages 12-18, there were about 1,420,900 nonfatal victimizations at school.”
The Plummeting Arrest Rates of California's ChildrenCenter on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, May, 2015“But in 2013, with a pre-teen population 40 percent larger, arrests for children under 12 fell to 1,394, and arrests of children under 10 fell to 219 -- leading to a 92 percent drop in arrest rates.”
The Incarceration of Children & Youth in New Jersey's Adult Prison System: New Jersey Youth Justice Initiative New Jersey Parents' Caucus, May, 2015“Youth of color are disproportionately represented among those waived to the adult prison system in New Jersey and make up approximately 90% of youth included in our data set who are incarcerated in the adult system.”
Unfinished Business: Deepening the Gains in Texas Juvenile Justice Reform Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, May, 2015“Reforms are needed to move the Texas Juvenile Justice Department and its 166 local juvenile probation departments in the right direction to keep more young people closer to their home (or in their home), where the data show they will have better outcomes.”
Re-Examining Juvenile Incarceration: High cost, poor outcomes spark shift to alternatives Pew Charitable Trusts Public Safety Performance Project, April, 2015“A growing body of research demonstrates that for many juvenile offenders, lengthy out-of-home placements in secure corrections or other residential facilities fail to produce better outcomes than alternative sanctions.”
Status Offenses: A National Survey Coalition for Juvenile Justice SOS Project, April, 2015“In 2011 alone, for example, an estimated 116,200 status offense cases were petitioned to juvenile courts nationwide, with 8,800 of these cases involving secure detention.”
Staying Connected: Keeping Justice-Involved Youth "Close to Home" in New York City John Jay College of Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation Center, March, 2015“After the beginning of Close to Home, the situation was reversed. Arrests in New York City fell more (-39%) than in other areas of the State (-24%).”
Juvenile Residential Facility Census, 2012: Selected Findings Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, March, 2015“The juvenile offender population dropped 14% from 2010 to 2012, to the lowest number since 1975.”
Trial Defense Guidelines: Representing a Child Client Facing a Possible Life Sentence Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, March, 2015“The objective of these guidelines is to set forth a national standard of practice to ensure zealous, constitutionally effective representation for all juveniles facing a possible life sentence.”
The School-to-Prison Pipeline in Black and WhiteACLU of Rhode Island, February, 2015“During the 2011-2012 school year, for example, black students comprised over 16% of suspensions statewide - more than twice their student population.”
Rising Up, Speaking Out: Youth Transforming Los Angeles County's Juvenille Justice System Children's Defense Fund - California, January, 2015“Five young people [...] share their own unique experiences inside probation camps and amplify key recommendations from an important UCLA focus group study on how to improve conditions inside Los Angeles County's camps.”
Closer to Home: An Analysis of the State and Local Impact of the Texas Juvenile Justice Reforms The Council of State Governments Justice Center, January, 2015“Youth incarcerated in state-run facilities are 21 percent more likely to be rearrested than those who remain under supervision closer to home.”
Community-Based Responses to Justice-Involved Young AdultsHarvard Kennedy School & National Institute of Justice, 2015(This report outlines a number of thoughtful recommendations aimed at making our justice system more developmentally appropriate in its response to young adults.)
The Prosecution of Youth As Adults in California: A 2015 Update Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, National Center for Youth Law, W. Haywood Burns Institute, 2015“The race and location of youth—rather than the seriousness of the offense—impacted the likelihood they were direct filed in adult criminal court and subjected to the adult system.”
The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls' Story Human Rights Project for Girls; Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality; Ms. Foundation for Women, 2015“And in a perverse twist of justice, many girls who experience sexual abuse are routed into the juvenile justice system because of their victimization.”
Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Court, 2011Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, December, 2014“From 1985 through 1997, the number of delinquenÂcy cases climbed steadily (62%) and then fell 34% from 1997 through 2011. Juvenile courts handled 7% more cases in 2011 than in 1985.”
Highlights of the 2012 National Youth Gang SurveyOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, December, 2014“Nearly 30 percent of all responding law enforcement agencies reported gang activity.”
Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected African American Policy Forum, December, 2014“Increased levels of law enforcement and security personnel within schools sometimes make girls feel less safe and less likely to attend school.”
Sticker Shock: Calculating the Full Price Tag for Youth Incarceration Justice Policy Institute, December, 2014“Each year, the U.S. incurs an estimated $8-$21 billion in long-term costs for the confinement of young people.”
Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2014 National Report National Center for Juvenile Justice, December, 2014“In 2011, school crime was common--1 in 8 students were in fights, 1 in 4 had property stolen or damaged.”
Failed Policies, Forfeited Futures: A Nationwide Scorecard on Juvenile Records Juvenile Law Center, November, 2014“A study of each state’s policies on keeping juvenile records confidential and allowing for those records to be expunged shows that the nation limits opportunities for youth by failing to protect them from the harmful effects of their juvenile records.”
Public Opinion on Juvenile Justice in AmericaThe Pew Charitable Trusts, November, 2014“Voters support sending serious juvenile offenders to corrections facilities, but they favor a range of less-costly alternatives for lower-level offenders.”
The Unpredictability of Murder: Juvenile Homicide in the Pathways to Desistance Study Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, October, 2014(Results from a rare-events logistic regression that examined the relationship between these five risk factors and their ability to distinguish between the two groups indicate that only lower IQ and a greater exposure to violence were significant.)
Youth in Residential Placement, 2011Department of Justice, August, 2014“The number of delinquents held in placement increased 4% between 1997 and 1999 and then decreased 43% to its lowest level in 2011.”
CRIPA Investigation of the NYC Department of Correction Jails on Rikers Island Department of Justice, August, 2014“We conclude that there is a pattern and practice of conduct at Rikers that violates the constitutional rights of adolescent inmates.”
Indicators Of School Crime And Safety, 2013Bureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2014“During the 2009–10 school year, 85% of public schools recorded that one or more crime incidents had taken place at school, amounting to an estimated 1.9 million crimes.”
Closing Massachusetts' Training Schools Reflections Forty Years Later The Annie E. Clark Foundation, June, 2014“...a quiet revolution has begun sweeping through our nation's juvenile justice systems... states across the country have begun shuttering juvenile corrections facilities and dramatically reducing the population of young people incarcerated.”
The School Discipline Consensus Report Strategies from the Field to Keep Students Engaged In School and Out of the Juvenile Justice System The Council of State Governments Justice Center, June, 2014“"The juvenile justice system does not have the tools or resources to respond to the needs of many youth coming thorugh its doors for minor school-based offenses.”
Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2013Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics, June, 2014“Presents data on crime and safety at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, and principals.”
Safely HomeYouth Advocate Programs, June, 2014“Community-based programs yield better results for kids than incarceration and can be implemented without spending any new money.”
Capital City Correction: Reforming DC's Use of Adult Incarceration Against Youth DC Lawyers for Youth, Campaign for Youth Justice, May, 2014“DC continues this practice of prosecuting, detaining, and incarcerating youth in the adult system despite the fact that research consistently finds that adult prosecution of youth does not effectively deter crime.”
Measuring Juvenile Recidivism Data collection and reporting practices in juvenile corrections Pew's Public Safety Performance Project, May, 2014“...a recent survey of these agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia found that 1 in 4 does not regularly collect and report recidivism data, and fewer than half use measures that provide a comprehensive picture of youth reoffending.”
Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Juvenile Justice SystemSentencing Project, May, 2014“juvenile justice systems are marked by disparate racial outcomes at every stage of the process, starting with more frequent arrests for youth of color and ending with more frequent secure placement.”
Youth Behind Bars Examining the impact of prosecuting and incarcerating kids in Michigan's criminal justice system Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency, May, 2014“...Michigan broadened juvenile prosecutors' discretion to automatically file in criminal court, expanded the number of juvenile offenses requiring an adult sentence, and allowed children of any age to be criminally convicted and sent to prison.”
Automatic Adult Prosecution of Children in Cook County, Illinois.2010-2012Juvenile Justice Initiative, April, 2014“Illinois should restore authority over whether a child under 18 should be tried in adult criminal court to juvenile court judges. This will bring Illinois in line with the majority of states, and will ensure better outcomes...”
Juvenile Life Without Parole: An Overview Sentencing Project, April, 2014(Still, the United States stands alone as the only nation that sentences people to life without parole for crimes committed before turning 18.)
Branded for Life: Florida's Prosecution of Children as Adults under its "Direct File" Statute Human Rights Watch, April, 2014“Florida transfers more children out of the juvenile system and into adult court than any other state. In the last five years alone, more than 12,000 juvenile crime suspects in Florida were transferred to the adult court system.”
Stakeholders' Views on the Movement to Reduce Youth IncarcerationNational Council on Crime and Delinquency, April, 2014“From June 2012 through June 2013, NCCD asked juvenile justice stakeholders to describe how youth incarceration was reduced in their jurisdictions.”
Juvenile Defense Attorneys: A Critical Protection Against Injustice The Importance of Skilled Juvenile Defenders to Upholding the Due Process Rights of Youth National Juvenile Defense Center, March, 2014“A youth's record can negatively impact his or her access to housing, employment, immigration status, voting rights, education, financial independence, and many other areas that impact the likelihood of future success.”
Improving Illinois' Response to Sexual Offense Committed by Youth: Recommendations for Law, Policy, and Practice Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission, March, 2014“Recommendation 3: Remove young people from the state's counter-productive sex offender registry and the application of categorical restrictions and”
Kids Doing Time for What's Not a Crime: The Over-Incarceration of Status Offenders Texas Public Policy Foundation, March, 2014“...there are very compelling reasons to avoid confinement of status offenders. The punishment fails to fit the”
Stemming the Flow of Youth Into Adult SystemsThe National Council on Crime and Delinquency, March, 2014“Can juvenile justice systems reduce incarceration while avoiding juveniles being tried as adults?”
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Disposition Matrix: A Validation Study Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, February, 2014“The recidivism rate of low risk to re-offend youth placed outside of the Disposition Matrix suggestions is 114% higher than the rate for low risk youth placed within the suggestions.”
From Fingerpaint to Fingerprints: The School-to-Prison Pipeline in Utah The University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, 2014“There were 1,230 disciplinary actions in 2011-12, the most recent school year for which data is available.”
Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative: 2013 Annual Results Report Inter-Site Conference Summary The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2014“In the aggregate, sites reduced the number of youth detained on an average day by nearly 3,600 compared with pre-JDAI levels, a reduction of 44 percent.”
Disparities in Discipline: A Look at School Disciplinary Actions for Utah's American Indian Students The University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, 2014(In Utah, American Indian students are almost four times (3.8) more likely to receive a school disciplinary action compared to their white counterparts.)
Just Learning The Imperative to Transform Juvenile Justice Systems Into Effective Educational Systems Southern Education Foundation, 2014“...most students come in and out of the juvenile justice systems with little or no real regard for their education.”
Implementing Juvenile Justice Reform The Federal Role National Research Council of the National Academies, 2014(OJJDP has not been reauthorized since 2002. Appropriated funding has declined by half in current dollars since 2003-2010, but more importantly the discretion that OJJDP has to use its funding has been sharply compromised.)
Unbalanced Juvenile JusticeBurns Institute, 2014“To help you better understand racial and ethnic disparities and how juvenile justice is being administered in your county, state, and nationwide, BI's interactive tools provide customizable searches.”
Facilitating Access to Health Care Coverage for Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth Models for Change, December, 2013“Youth involved in the juvenile justice system have extensive physical and behavior health needs. The majority have at least one mental health condition and substance abuse is also very common.”
A Generation Later: What We've Learned about Zero Tolerance in Schools Vera Institute of Justice, December, 2013“Among middle school students, black youth are suspended nearly 4 times more often than white youth, and Latino youth are roughly twice as likely to be suspended or expelled than white youth.”
From Courts to Communities: The Right Response to Truancy, Running Away, and Other Status Offenses Vera Institute of Justice, December, 2013“Youth who run away from home, routinely skip school, and engage in other risky behaviors that are prohibited ...are acting out in ways that should concern the adults in their lives. They need appropriate attention-but not from the juvenile justice system.”
Fout's Spring: A Model Approach to Serving High-Risk Youth Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, November, 2013“This report analyzes a five-year time period regarding youth committed to the program and its ability to serve th[em]... [It] conclude[s] that Fouts Springs produced substantially better public safety results than DJF, in less time and at reduced cost.”
Alone & Afraid Children Held in Solitary Confinement and Isolation in Juvenile Detention and Correctional Facilities American Civil Liberties Union, November, 2013“Solitary confinement and isolation of children in juvenile facilities is psychologically, developmentally, and physically damaging and can result in long-term problems and even suicide.”
South Bronx Community Connections Technical Report John Jay College of Criminal Justice, November, 2013“By fall 2013, two years into project implementation, a statistical analysis of SBCC’s available data (see Appendix A) found juvenile project participants to be suggestively, but significantly (p value= 0.09), less likely to be re-arrested within a year.”
Juvenile Facility Staff Responses to Organizational ChangeAlexandra Cox, SUNY New Paltz, October, 2013“Staff and youth perceptions of fairness were rooted in their desire for participation and voice in the organizational landscape.”
Technology, Teen Dating, Violence and Abuse, and BullyingUrban Institute, Justice Policy Center, August, 2013“26% of youth in a relationship said they experienced some form of cyber dating abuse victimization in the prior year. Females were twice as likely as males to report being a victim of sexual cyber dating abuse in the prior year.”
Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2012 Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2013“In 2011, about 28 percent of 12- to 18-year-old students reported being bullied at school during the school year.”
Juvenile Incarceration, Human Capital and Future Crime: Evidence from Randomly-Assigned Judges Brown University, MIT, June, 2013“"Estimates suggest that juvenile incarceration results in large decreases in the likelihood of high school completion and large increases in the likelihood of adult incarceration."”
The Comeback States: Reducing youth incarceration in the United States National Juvenile Justice Network and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, June, 2013“Six policies encourage reductions in reliance on detention and incarceration, including disallowing incarceration for minor offenses, and increasing the availability of evidence-based alternatives to incarceration.”
PTSD, Trauma, and Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders in Detained YouthOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, June, 2013“Of the study sample, 92.5 percent of youth had experienced at least one trauma, 84 percent had experienced more than one trauma, and 56.8 percent were exposed to trauma six or more times.”
Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2012Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2013“An estimated 9.5% of adjudicated youth in state juvenile facilities and state contract facilities (1,720 youth) reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization in the past 12 months or since admission, if less than 12 months.”
Understanding and Addressing Youth Violence in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department Michelle Deitch, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, May, 2013“Although they represented 57% of TJJD's youth population, youth ages 17-18 committed only 44% of violations involving violence/escapes or riots/group disturbances in 2012. 14- 15-year olds were 12% of the population but 25% of serious violations.”
Fostering Change: How investing in D.C.'s child welfare system can keep kids out of the prison pipeline Justice Policy Institute, April, 2013“In 2010, parental incarceration surpassed parental substance abuse as the third highest reason for District children entering care, and in 2010, one in every six kids entering foster care had an incarcerated parent.”
The Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Recidivism Report: Youth with a 2007 Case Closure  Pennsylvanie Juvenile Court Judges' Commission, April, 2013“Youth with only one written allegation in their juvenile offending history (i.e., first time offenders) reoffended at a rate of 13%. Conversely, juveniles with four or more previous written allegations re-offended at a rate of 37%.”
Missouri: Justice Rationed An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Juvenile Defense Representation in Delinquency Proceedings National Juvenile Defender Center, April, 2013“Missouri's indigent defense system is in crisis and has suffers crushing caseloads and inadequate resources. The system remains broken and forced to ration services, and youth are discouraged from and systematically denied counsel throughout the state.”
Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the US Human Rights Watch, April, 2013“Good public policy should deliver measurable protection to the community and measurable benefit to victims. There is little reason to believe that registering people who commit sexual offenses as children delivers either.”
Juvenile Justice Reform in Connecticut: How Collaboration and Commitment Have Improved Public Safety and Outcomes for Youth Justice Policy Institute, February, 2013“Juvenile Justice Reform in Connecticut highlights the past two decades of Connecticut's successful efforts to improve responses to youth who engage in delinquent behavior and to reduce the number of youth placed into residential facilities”
Raising the Age of Juvenile Court Jurisdiction The future of 17-year-olds in Illinois' justice system Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission, February, 2013“Adding 17-year-old misdemeanants to the juvenile justice system in 2010 did not crash it. In fact, due to a sharp decline in juvenile crime, there are currently fewer juvenile arrests than when the General Assembly began debating the change in 2008.”
Common Ground: Lessons Learned from Five States that Reduced Juvenile Confinement by More than Half Justice Policy Institute, February, 2013“For all states and the District of Columbia, the number of youth in residential placement dropped steadily from its high of 107,493 in 1999 to 70,792 in 2010.”
Reducing Youth Incarceration in the United States a KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot Annie E. Casey Foundation, February, 2013“Since 1995 the rate of youth in confinement dropped by 41 percent, from 381 per 100,000 youth to 225 per 100,000.”
If Not Now, When? A Survey of Juvenile Justice Training in America's Police Academies Strategies for Youth, February, 2013“Only 2 states' written curricula included training on youth development issues, such as communication techniques with juveniles, understanding the problems adolescents face and recognizing the sources and triggers of their behavior.”
Handcuffs on Success The Extreme School Discipline Crisis in Mississippi Public Schools Advancement Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, Mississippi Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse, January, 2013“Extreme and destructive approaches to school discipline not only have directly harmed students and families, but also have caused teachers, law enforcement officials, and community members to have their lives and careers made more difficult.”
Changing Course Preventing Gang Membership U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013“The complex interplay between poverty, competition over scarce resources and crime creates environments that are conducive to the formation of gangs and their attractiveness to youth.”
State Trends Legislative Victories 2011-2013 Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System Campaign for Youth Justice, 2013“"[e]ighty-five percent of youth sentenced to life without parole are people of color, with 75 percent of all cases in California being African American or Hispanic youth.”
Implementing Proven Programs For juvenile Offenders: Assessing State Progress Association for the Advancement of Evidence-Based Practice, December, 2012“All of the leading states identified at least one person to become fully informed about the available evidence-based practice options and made the time available for them to do this, including travel to operational sites and training in specific models.”
Report of the Attorney General's National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence Attorney General's National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence, December, 2012“It is crucial that incarceration of juveniles not involve sanctions that subject them to additional violence, both to protect them from harm and to avoid teaching them by example that violence is an appropriate means to control other people's behavior.”
Who does the Massachusetts juvenile justice system serve?Citizens for Juvenile Justice, December, 2012“The delinquency charging rates in Barnstable and Hampden counties are 2-3 times higher than some other counties, and roughly twice the statewide average. The charging rates in Bristol and Suffolk Counties are 8 and 6 times the state average.”
Tracked and Trapped: Youth of Color, Gang Databases and Gang Injunctions Youth Justice Coalition RealSearch Actions Research Center, December, 2012“Currently 291,094 people across California are in the CalGang database. Of these, 94% are male, nearly 20% are African-American, and 66% are Latino.”
Reforming Juvenile Justice A Developmental Approach National Research Council, November, 2012“A harsh system of punishing troubled youth can make things worse, while a scientifically based juvenile justice system can make an enduring difference in the lives of many youth who most need the structure and services it can provide.”
Community Solutions for Youth in TroubleTexas Criminal Justice Coalition, October, 2012“A 2012 survey of county juvenile probation chiefs in Texas found community-based programming to be the second-highest need for increased funding. Texas legislators should expand their investment in community programs.”
Growing Up Locked Down Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisoner Across the United State Human Rights Watch and American Civil Liberties Union, October, 2012“HRW and ACLU estimate that in 2011, more than 95,000 youth were held in prisons and jails. A significant number of these facilities use solitary confinement to punish, protect, house, or treat some of the young people who are held there.”
California Youth Crime Plunges to All-Time LowCenter on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, October, 2012“All categories of crime fell substantially among youths in 2011. Felony arrests were down 17%, both violent and property felonies were down 16%, misdemeanor and status offenses were down 21%, and homicide was down 26%.”
Families Unlocking Futures Solutions to the Crisis in Juvenile Justice Justice for Families, October, 2012“The primary problems are: (1) Incarceration doesn't work, as evidenced by recidivism rates and a long record of chronic and shameful abuses; and (2) by and large, probation and other forms of risk management do not help youth succeed in the long-term.”
Measuring Change in New Jersey's Treatment of Young OffendersAdvocates for Children of New Jersey, October, 2012“n 2011, the state locked up nearly 7,000 fewer juveniles in one year than it did prior to JDAI implementation. On any given day, 446 fewer juveniles are spending time in a New Jersey detention center.”
Girls' Experiences in the Texas Juvenile Justice System 2012 Survey Findings Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, October, 2012“46% of the surveyed girls report that the staff, programs, and treatment in county juvenile facilities did not help them deal with past trauma; an additional 4% said that county facilities actually did more harm than good in dealing with past trauma.”
Improving the Juvenile Justice System for Girls Lessons from the States Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy, October, 2012“The set of challenges that girls often face as they enter the juvenile justice system include trauma, violence, neglect, mental and physical problems, family conflict, pregnancy, residential and academic instability, and school failure.”
Representing Girls in the Juvenile Justice SystemNorth Carolina Office of the Juvenile Defender, August, 2012“In an effort to provide information to defense counsel, this document provides a compilation of research regarding girls in the juvenile justice system and suggests best practices and strategies for defense counsel representing girls.”
Performance Audit Report Evaluating the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex, Part I State of Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit, July, 2012“Overall, the environment at KJCC has not been conducive to ensuring the safety and security of juvenile offenders and staff.”
Pioneers of Youth Justice Reform Achieving System Change Using Resolution, Reinvestment, and Realignment Strategies John Jay College of Criminal Justice, July, 2012“Incarcerated juveniles, especially those low in risk, tend to recidivate at higher rates than youth treated in their homes or communities... many youth courts place juveniles in state facilities for committing non-violent offenses/violating probation.”
Trends in Juvenile Justice State Legislation 2001-2011National Conference of State Legislatures, June, 2012“States are reevaluating their juvenile justice systems [to] produce better results for kids at lower cost. This has contributed to a state legislative trend to realign fiscal resources from state institutions toward more effective community-based services”
Juvenile Court Statistics 2009National Center for Juvenile Justice, May, 2012“Between 1997 and 2009, the number of public order offense cases increased 1%, person offense cases and drug law violation cases decreased 13% and 12%, respectively, and property offense cases decreased 35%..”
Juvenile Justice Alternative Edu. Programs Performance Assessment Report School Year 2010-2011 Texas Juvenile Justice Department, May, 2012“The average passing rate for reading/ELA was 68.8% compared to 38.2% for math. The overall passing rates are up from 67.6% in reading/ELA and 34.5% for math in school year 2008-2009.”
Arrested Future The Criminalization of School Discipline in Massachusetts' Three Largest School Districts ACLU of Massachusetts, May, 2012“While there are undoubtedly many reasons why there are more public order arrests in Springfield than in Boston or Worcester, it appears that the manner in which Springfield deploys police officers in its public schools is a contributing factor.”
Highlights of the 2010 National Youth Gang SurveyOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, April, 2012“Gang-related homicides increased more than 10 percent from 2009 in cities with populations of more than 100,000.”
Youth in Minnesota Correctional Facilities and the Effects of Trauma Responses to the 2010 Minnesota Students Survey Minnesota Department of Public Safety, March, 2012“[O]ver half of youth in correctional facilities report at least one form of trauma on the MSS (53%) compared to just over one-quarter of a matched sample of mainstream students (28%).”
Indicators Of School Crime And Safety, 2011Bureau of Justice Statistics, February, 2012“In 2009–10, about 74 percent of public schools recorded one or more violent incidents of crime, 16 percent recorded one or more serious violent incidents, and 44 percent recorded one or more thefts.”
Juvenile Justice Reform In Arkansas Building a Better Future for Youth, their Families, and the Community Arkansas Division of Youth Services, February, 2012“Almost all youth committed to DYS are non-violent offenders. During the first 3 quarters of FY 2008, more than 90% of all commitments were for non-violent offenses.”
You're an Adult Now Youth in Adult Criminal Justice Systems National Institute of Corrections, December, 2011“Youth transferred to the adult corrections system recidivate at a higher rate than those kept in the juvenile justice system.”
Juvenile Arrests 2009Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, December, 2011“The number of juvenile violent crime arrests in 2009 was less than any year in the 1990s, and 14% less than the number of such arrests in 2006.”
The Effects of Parental Incarceration on Children: Needs and Responsive Services Joint State Government Commission, General Assembly of Pennsylvania, December, 2011“In accordance with the HR 203 and SR 52, the present report focuses on ameliorative intervention, at mitigating the negative impacts of parental incarceration on children, and assisting these children in becoming healthy, productive and responsible adults”
Education Under Arrest: The Case Against Police in Schools Justice Policy Institute, November, 2011“[School resource officers] and law enforcement in schools are not needed to keep kids safe, especially when youth pay the price of becoming involved in the juvenile justice system and suffer a lifetime of negative effects as a result.”
No Place for Kids The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration Annie E. Casey Foundation, October, 2011“The time has come for states to embrace a [...] different orientation to treating adolescent offenders—an approach grounded in evidence that promises to be far more humane, cost-effective, & protective of public safety than [juvenile incarceration].”
Juvenile Court Statistics 2008US Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, July, 2011“Drug offense case rates increased dramatically for all age groups between 1991 and 1998: 229% for juveniles ages 10–12, 165% for youth ages 13–15, 146% for 16-year-olds, and 148% for 17-year-olds.”
Misguided Measures The Outcomes and Impacts of Measure 11 on Oregon's Youth Partnership for Safety and Justice, July, 2011“Over the three-year period from 2006 to 2008, data from the 36 Oregon counties show no discernible pattern between the number of young people charged with a Measure 11 offense and the juvenile crime rate.”
Tribal Youth in the Federal Justice SystemUrban Institute, Justice Policy Center, May, 2011“Tribal youth represented about 40-55% of all juveniles in the federal system, depending on the stage in the system.”
Thinking Outside the Cell Alternatives to Incarceration for Youth with Mental Illness Texas Appleseed, April, 2011“...youth should be supported close to their families and home environments and that detention should always be a last resort.”
Collecting DNA from JuvenilesUrban Institute, Justice Policy Center, April, 2011“The lack of data about the number and characteristics of juveniles with profiles in CODIS limits the ability of policymakers and researchers to understand the ramifications of collecting DNA from juveniles.”
Restructuring Texas' Juvenile Justice System Saving Money, Saving Communities & Saving Youth Texas Appleseed, March, 2011“Building a continuum of care – reserving secure facilities for only those youth who cannot be safely treated in the community – provides for quality treatment.”
The Lives of Juvenile Lifers: Findings from a National Survey Sentencing Project, March, 2011“The proportion of African Americans serving JLWOP sentences for the killing of a white person (43.4%) is nearly twice the rate at which African American juveniles are arrested for taking a white person's life (23.2%).”
Law Enforcement Officers in Wake County Schools: The Human, Educational, and Financial Costs Advocates for Children's Services, Legal Aid of North Carolina, February, 2011(This report examines the effects of the proliferation of police officers in Wake County, NC (Raleigh area) public schools.)
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Raising the Age of Juvenile Jurisdiction in North CarolinaVera Institute of Justice, 2011“Raising the age of juvenile jurisdiction from 16 to 18 for alleged misdemeanants and low-level felons will generate $52.3 million in net benefits, per annual cohort of youth aged 16 and 17, from the combined perspectives of taxpayers, victims, and youth.”
Falling Through the Cracks A New Look at Ohio Youth in the Adult Criminal Justice System Children's Law Center, Inc., 2011“Ohio must begin to shift direction with regard to youth in the adult criminal justice system and move toward a more humane, research-driven approach to these youth.”
Think Before You Plea Juvenile Collateral Consequences in the United States (A guide to 50 states) American Bar Association, 2011(State-by-state analysis of the procedures and consequences of the juvenile justice system.)
Texas' School-to-Prison Pipeline Ticketing, Arrest & Use of Force in Schools Texas Appleseed, December, 2010“Where a child attends school, and not the nature of the offense, is the great determining factor in whether a student will be arrested at school.”
No Better Off An Update on Swanson Center for Youth Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, November, 2010“Lack or programming in the facility and on overreliance on lockdown result in youth's being”
Healing Invisible Wounds Why Investing in Trauma-Informed Care for Children Makes Sense Justice Policy Institute, July, 2010“Joseph Tulman between 75 and 93 percent of youth entering the juvenile justice system annually in this country have experienced some degree of trauma.”
Juvenile Transfer Laws: An Effective Deterrent to Delinquency? Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, June, 2010“This Bulletin provides an overview of research on the deterrent effects of transferring youth from juvenile to criminal courts[.]”
Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09Bureau of Justice Statistics, January, 2010“The report provides national-level and facility-level estimates of sexual victimization by type of activity, including youth-on-youth sexual contact, staff sexual misconduct, and level of coercion.”
The Missouri Model Reinventing the Practice of Rehabilitating Youthful Offenders Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2010“For instance, the average length of stay in North Carolina juvenile facilities was 386 days in 2007,18 while California youth average three years in confinement.”
Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2009Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2009“This annual report examines crime occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school. It... provides the most current detailed statistical information on the nature of crime in schools and school environments and responses to violence and crime.”
Back on Track Supporting Youth Reentry from Out-of-Home Placement to the Community Sentencing Project, November, 2009“Presents promising practices and recommendations for federal leadership on youth reentry.”
The Costs of Confinement Why Good Juvenile Justice Policies Make Good Fiscal Sense Justice Policy Institute, May, 2009(Cost of Confinement shows that states spend billions to imprison youth in secure facilities, but could save money, preserve public safety, and improve life outcomes for individual youth by redirecting the money to community-based alternatives.)
Juvenile Suicide in Confinement A National Survey Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, February, 2009“Almost half (48.1 percent) the suicides occurred in facilities administered by state agencies, 39.2 percent took place in county facilities, and 12.7 percent occurred in private programs.”
Registering Harm How Sex Offense Registries Fail Youth Communities Justice Policy Institute, November, 2008“Continued investments in registries put our families in danger with short-sighted policies that alienate people who are trying to safely re-enter the community.”(See also the Wash Act Briefing Book here: http://www.justicepolicy.org/content-hmID=1811&smID=1581&ssmID=80.htm)
A Call to Action for Juvenile JusticeAmerican Bar Association, October, 2008“Juvenile justice advocates' transition document offers suggestions to the new admininstration.”
Sexual Violence Reported by Juvenile Correctional Authorities, 2005-06Bureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2008“Sexual misconduct involving staff-on-youth accounted for 28 percent of all substantiated incidents, while staff sexual harassment of youth accounted for 8 percent.”(Males were more likely to be victims of youth-on-youth sexual violence (73%) than victims of staff sexual violence (49%). Females were more likely to be victims of staff sexual violence (51%) than victims of youth-on-youth sexual violence (27%).)
Kids Count 2008 Data Book The Annie E. Casey Foundation, June, 2008“[In 2006] the ratio of rates of youth of color to white youth in custody was 3:1; and two out of three (66 percent) of all youth in custody were there due to a non-violent offense.”
Native American Youth and the Juvenile Justice SystemNational Council on Crime and Delinquency, March, 2008(Juvenile Justice disparities between Native American youth and White youth are alarmingly high and in need of remediation.)
"When I Die, They'll Send Me Home" Youth Sentenced to Life without Parole in California Human Rights Watch, January, 2008“African American youth arrested for murder are sentenced to life without parole in California at a rate that is 5.83 times that of white youth arrested for murder.”
Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in Prison Equal Justice Initiative, November, 2007“In many states, 13- and 14-year-olds are subjected to the harshest possible prison sentence... In most of these cases, the judges who imposed death in prison sentences on young children had no other legal option.”
America's Cradle to Prison PipelineChildren's Defense Fund, October, 2007“A Black boy born in 2001 has a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime; a Latino boy a 1 in 6 chance; and a White boy a 1 in 17 chance.”
Sixth Semi-Annual Report of the Arizona Department of Juvenile CorrectionsArizona Consultants Committee, September, 2007(Sixth semi-annual report of the Consultants Committee prepared pursuant to Section III F(5) of the Memorandum of Agreement between the US Dept. of Justice and the State of Arizona, regarding compliance with the MOA provisions.)
Evidence-Based Juvenile Offender Programs: Program Description, Quality Assurance, and Cost Washington State Institute for Public Policy, June, 2007“Six juvenile offender programs identified by Institute as evidence-based are profiled through program descriptions, quality assurance information, and cost-benefit figures.”
The Consequences Aren't Minor: The Impact of Trying Youth as Adults and Strategies for Reform Campaign for Youth Justice, March, 2007“Despite the data, surveys report that the public believes the juvenile crime rate is increasing and that youth account for a large proportion of overall crime. In reality, national statistics show that more than 80% of all crimes are committed by adults.”
Juvenile Court Statistics 2003-2004National Center for Juvenile Justice, March, 2007“This Report describes delinquency cases handled between 1985 and 2004 by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction and status offense cases handled between 1995 and 2004.”
Attitudes of US Voters toward Youth Crime and the Justice SystemNational Council on Crime and Delinquency, February, 2007“Approximately 7 in 10 feel that putting youth under age 18 in adult correctional facilities makes them more likely to commit future crime.”
And Justice for Some: Differential Treatment of Youth of Color in the Justice System The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, January, 2007“This report details the accumulated disadvantage for youth of color as they move through the juvenile justice system and, too often, into the adult system.”
Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2006Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics, December, 2006“The percentage of public schools experiencing one or more violent incidents increased between the 1999-2000 and 2003-04 school years, from 71 to 81 percent.”
Models for Change: Building Momentum for Juvenile Justice Reform Justice Policy Institute, December, 2006“This brief tells the story of how the four Models for Change states -- Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, and Washington -- are already moving to reform and reshape their own state juvenile justice systems.”
The Dangers of Detention: The Impact of Incarcerating Youth in Detention and Other Secure Facilities Justice Policy Institute, November, 2006“[I]ncarcerated youth have higher recidivism rates than youth supervised in other kinds of settings.”
Do you know where the children are? A Report of Massachusetts Youth Unlawfully Held Without Bail Barbara Fedders and Barbara Kaban, September, 2006
Custody and Control Conditions of Confinement in New York's Juvenile Prisons for Girls Human Rights Watch, September, 2006“[G]irls experience abusive physical restraints and other forms of abuse and neglect, and are denied the mental health, educational, and other rehabilitative services they need.”
California Youth Crime Declines: The Untold Story Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, September, 2006“Juvenile crime rates in California are at 30-year lows.”
An Analysis of Racial Disproportionality in Juvenile Confinement An Analysis of Disproportionate Minority Confinement in the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center Council on Crime and Justice, August, 2006“The major findings show that all nine police departments studied refer a disproportionate number of minority juveniles to the JDC.”
Testing Incapacitation Theory: Youth Crime and Incarceration in California Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, July, 2006“Between 1980 and 2004, the rate of juvenile incarceration in California fell by nearly 50 percent.”
Stopping Sexual Assaults in Juvenile Corrections Facilities: A Case Study of the California Division of Juvenile Justice National Council on Crime and Delinquency, June, 2006“Unchecked violence and sexual assault in juvenile facilities will lead to more tragedies and victims in the community.”(Barry Krisberg, Ph.D.'s Testimony Before the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission)
Juvenile Residential Facility Census, 2002: Selected Findings Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, June, 2006“13% of facilities did not have an in-house mental health professional evaluate youth.”
Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, June, 2006“[D]raws on reliable data and relevant research to provide a comprehensive and insightful view of juvenile crime across the nation.”
Treated Like Trash: Juvenile Detention in New Orleans Before, During, and After Hurricane Katrina Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, May, 2006“In their own words, a harrowing tale of escape, mismanagement and neglect unfolds, illustrating deep problems in New Orleans' system of juvenile justice and how we treat children in New Orleans.”
The Juvenile Offender Study: A Retrospective Examination of Youth Offenders Council on Crime and Justice, April, 2006“This study was undertaken to identify and examine interventions with juvenile offenders whose criminal behavior continued into adulthood.”
Hidden Challenges: Juvenile Justice and Education Issues Affecting Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Youth in Richmond, California National Council on Crime and Delinquency, March, 2006“The intent of [this] report is to provide a detailed assessment of the status of Southeast Asian youth in Richmond. To this end, the report contains data from the areas of juvenile justice and education, with relevant demographic data provided for context”
Cost-Effective Youth Corrections Rationalizing the Fiscal Architecture of Juvenile Justice Systems Justice Policy Institute, March, 2006“The experience of secure confinement can change the kind of routine law-breaking that is often part of adolescence into a stable pattern that, unfortunately, endures over time. States are actually paying additional money to generate worse outcomes.”
Second Chances Juveniles serving life without parole in Michigan prisons American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, January, 2006“The majority (221) of juvenile lifers are minority youth, 211 of whom are African-American. The percentage of African-American juvenile lifers (69%) is greatly disproportionate to the general population in Michigan, which is 15% African-American.”
No Turning Back: Promising Approaches to Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities Affecting Youth of Color in the Justice System Building Blocks for Youth, October, 2005
Community Based Management Pilot Programs for Youth with Mental Illness... Program Evaluation Report: Year Four Colorado Department of Public Safety, October, 2005(The number of new offenses after the program is strongly influenced by the program. Of program completers, 46% fewer individuals received a new court case in the 12 months after the program as the 12 months before.)
The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, October, 2005“there are currently at least 2,225 people incarcerated in the United States who have been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison for crimes they committed as children”
Restructuring Juvenile Corrections in California: A Report to the State Legislature Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice, September, 2005“This report... present[s] research findings showing how structural changes require closing structurally outdated large correctional institutions in favor of smaller county or regionally based facilities.”
Reforming Juvenile Detention in FloridaNational Council on Crime and Delinquency, August, 2005(Current conditions and proposed alternatives for the Florida juvenile detention system.)
A Look At The Impact SchoolsDrum Major Institute, June, 2005“...the Impact Schools initiative has brought increased police and security presence into 22 New York City middle and high schools...”(The report shows that low income, over-crowding and race are as characteristic of the schools as their crime-rates.)
Root Causes and Solutions to Disparities for Hispanics/Latinos in the Juvenile Justice System Council on Crime and Justice, May, 2005“Statistical analysis indicated that Hispanic/Latino youth were over represented in the juvenile system by 227% in 1990 and by 92% in 2000.”
First Semi-Annual ReportArizona Department Of Juvenile Corrections - Consultant's Committee, March, 2005(Results of a CRIPA investigation into conditions in Arizona's juvenile correctional facilities.)
Education on Lockdown: The Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track Advancement Project, March, 2005“Examination of the emergence of zero tolerance school discipline policies and how these policies have pushed students away from an academic track to a future in the juvenile justice system.”
California Youth Authority Warehouses: Failing Kids, Families & Public Safety Books Not Bars and the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, March, 2005
Accountability Audit: Review of Audits of the California Youth Authority, 2000-2003 California Office of the Inspector, January, 2005
Childhood on Trial The Failure of Trying and Sentencing Youth in Adult Criminal Court Coalition for Juvenile Justice, 2005“Overview of report that identifies the public safety and rehabilitative failures of our nation's widespread”
Youth Court: A Community Solution for Embracing At-Risk Youth--A National Update The American Youth Policy Forum, 2005
Reforming Juvenile Justice Through Comprehensive Community PlanningNational Council on Crime and Delinquency, March, 2004“The experience [with Comprehensive Community Planning] suggests that there are productive ways in which the federal government can interact with and assist local initiatives.”
Juvenile Justice in Florida: What Kind of Future? National Council on Crime and Delinquency, March, 2004“The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) conducted a study to determine the potential benefits to Florida of adopting a data-driven approach to juvenile corrections that is based on the best national research.”
The Dimensions, Pathways, and Consequences of Youth ReentryUrban Institute, January, 2004“Because young people in their teens and early twenties undergo considerable physical, mental, and emotional changes, the process and experience of youth reentry may fundamentally differ from what adults face.”
Juvenile Arrests, 2001Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, December, 2003(juvenile crime drop continues, 7th year in a row)
Maine: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center, October, 2003
North Carolina: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center, October, 2003
Montana An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center, October, 2003
Washington: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center, October, 2003
Maryland: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center, October, 2003
Pennsylvania: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center, October, 2003
Youth in CourtOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, June, 2003
Youth Victimization: Prevalence and Implications National Institute of Justice, April, 2003“youth victimization is clearly linked to mental health problems and delinquent behavior. Results are analyzed across gender and race/ethnicity and translated into national estimates”
Justice Cut Short: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings in Ohio American Bar Association, March, 2003
Unintended Consequences: The Impact of 'zero tolerance' and other exclusionary policies on Kentucky students Building Blocks for Youth, February, 2003
Youth' Competence to Stand Trial: A Comparison of Adolescents' and Adults' Capacities as Trial Defendants MacArthur Foundation, February, 2003
Juvenile Arrests: 2000Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, January, 2003“6 straight years of a decline in arrests of juveniles for violent crimes”
Unlocking the Future: Detention Reform in the Juvenile Justice System Coalition for Juvenile Justice; Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2003“Juvenile court jurisdictions... needlessly sweep into locked detention many young people with mental health, substance abuse and family problems - most of whom are 15 years or younger, nonviolent, and disproportionately youth of color.”
Virginia: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center and the Mid-Atlantic Juvenile Defender Center, October, 2002
On The Level: Disproportionate Minority Contact in Minnesota's Juvenile Justice System Minnesota Department of Public Safety, October, 2002“African American youth, who comprise just 8% of the youth population White but are 34% of juvenile delinquency arrests. On a smaller scale, American Indian youth are 2% of the youth population but account for 4% of juvenile delinquency arrests.”
Kentucky-Advancing Justice: An Assessment of Access to Counsel in Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center and the Children's Law Center, September, 2002
Aftercare as afterthought: Re-entry and the California Youth Authority Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, August, 2002
¿Dónde Está la Justicia? A Call to Action on behalf of Latino and Latina Youth in the U.S. Justice System (English Version) Building Blocks for Youth, July, 2002(Available in English and Spanish)
¿Dónde Está la Justicia? Un llamado a la acción a favor de los jóvenes latinos en el sistema de justicia de los EE.UU. (Spanish) Building Blocks for Youth, July, 2002
OJJDP Statistical Briefing BookOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, April, 2002“frequently updated”(provides basic information on juvenile crime and victimization and on youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Data in the six topics (left menu) provide ... statistical answers to the most frequently asked questions)
Juvenile Offenders in Residential Placement: 1997-1999 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, March, 2002“There were 108,931 juvenile offenders in residential placement on October 27, 1999”
Juvenile Transfer to Criminal Court: Final Report Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, January, 2002(see summary with graphs at http://sentencingproject.org/pdfs/2083.pdf)
Lost Opportunities: Our Children Are Not Rehabilitated When They Are Treated And Incarcerated As Adults Roslyn M. Satchel, Southern Center for Human Rights, 2002
Georgia: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center and the Southern Center for Human Rights, August, 2001
The Children Left Behind: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings in Louisiana American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center and Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, June, 2001
Opportunities Suspended: The Devastating Consequences of Zero Tolerance and School Discipline Policies Advancement Project & Harvard Civil Rights Project, June, 2000“The report illustrates that Zero Tolerance is unfair, is contrary to the developmental needs of children, denies children educational opportunities, and often results in the criminalization of children.”
Runaway Juvenile Crime?: The Context of Juvenile Crime Arrests Justice Policy Institute, March, 1998(Special release version just after the Jonesboro shootings)
Beyond the Walls: Improving Conditions of Confinement for Youth in Custody Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, January, 1998
Juvenile Justice and Disproportionality: Patterns of Minority Over-Representation in Washington's Juvenile Justice System State of Washington Sentencing Guidelines Commission, December, 1997
High Country Lockup: Children in Confinement in Colorado Human Rights Watch, September, 1997
The Pods of Elmore County A glimpse into the rhetoric behind the juvenile crime bill Justice Policy Institute, September, 1997
More Than Meets the Eye: Rethinking Assessment, Competency and Sentencing for a Harsher Era of Juvenile Justice American Bar Association, August, 1997
A Call for Justice: An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings American Bar Association, December, 1995
