A Handbook for Evidence-Based Juvenile Justice Systems

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Description

This handbook promotes a comprehensive strategy founded on evidence-based programming for juvenile justice systems to adopt or enhance their current system. The comprehensive strategy is supported strongly by the broad research base that is now available. This strategy recognizes, first, that a relatively small proportion of the juveniles who initially enter the juvenile justice system will prove to be serious, violent, or chronic offenders, but that group accounts for a large proportion of the overall amount of delinquency. An important component of a comprehensive evidence-based juvenile justice system, therefore, is distinguishing these offenders from others and focusing attention and resources on that smaller group. Second, a comprehensive strategy recognizes that serious, violent, or chronic delinquency emerges along developmental pathways that progress from less to more serious profiles of offending. Priority must be given to interrupting these offender careers by calibrating the level of supervision and control of the juveniles behavior to their level of risk. The third major component of a comprehensive strategy, therefore, is effective intervention programs that are capable of reducing the recidivism of those juveniles at risk for further delinquency. The Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders is an administrative framework that supports a continuum of services that parallel the development of offender careers. This framework emphasizes evidence-based programming specifically on recidivism reduction, and supports protocols for developing comprehensive treatment plans that match effective services with offender treatment needs along the life-course of delinquent careers, as they move from intake onward, to probation, community programs, confinement, and reentry. Juvenile justice systems will benefit from incorporation of a comprehensive strategy as provided in the handbook.

Reviews

The authors shine a welcome light on the sometimes-murky question of evidence-based practice in the juvenile justice system. For students and academics, this handbook provides a cutting-edge distillation of current research. For policymakers and practitioners, it clears up much of the confusion surrounding evidence-based practice and offers a practical guide for improving outcomes and reducing costs. -- Rob Lubitz, Juvenile Justice and Criminal Justice Consulting
A Handbook for Evidence-based Juvenile Justice Systems is a game-changer for both researchers and practitioners. The authors provide a soup-to-nuts strategy for juvenile justice system reform, moving the conversation from whether a particular program is 'evidence-based' to providing a continuum of intervention options evaluated as they are actually implemented, with strategies for continuous improvement. The research-to-practice gap has been officially bridged by this blueprint to providing the right service, to the right youth, at the right time, with the right quality, and in the right dosage. Truly a juvenile justice administrators dream. -- Michael Baglivio, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
This comprehensive handbook is a 'must-read' for any juvenile justice professional seeking to implement evidence-based programs and practices. -- Keith Snyder, Juvenile Court Judges' Commission, Pennsylvania Judicial Center
If one wants to be smart about reducing crime, this highly informative book is essential reading. -- Rolf Loeber, University of Pittsburgh

Author Bio

James C. (Buddy) Howell is partner in Comprehensive Strategies for Juvenile Justice and an experienced juvenile justice and youth gang researcher. Mark W. Lipsey is director of the Peabody Research Institute at Vanderbilt University, where he is also research professor in the Department of Human and Organizational Development. John J. Wilson is partner in Comprehensive Strategies for Juvenile Justice and has taught courses in the legal rights of children, juvenile justice, and family law.