Justice and Diversion

Summary: This review examines research as it relates to mentoring as a prevention strategy for delinquent behavior. The appeal of mentoring as a delinquent behavior prevention strategy is understandable given its relatively low cost and...

Abstract We meta-analytically examined program graduation rates among juvenile drug treatment court (JDTC) participants, the effects of JDTCs on recidivism and substance use outcomes, and the variability in these effects. We systematically...

Abstract Juvenile Drug Treatment Courts (JDTC) emerged in the mid-1990s as a potential solution to concern about substance use among youth in the juvenile justice system (JJS). Despite substantial research, findings on the JDTC...

Abstract The current study advances past research by studying the impact of juvenile justice decision making with a geographically and ethnically diverse sample (N = 1,216) of adolescent boys (ages 13-17 years) for the 5 years following...

Closer to Home: An Analysis of the State and Local Impact of the Texas Juvenile Justice Reforms, which draws on an unprecedented dataset of 1.3 million individual case records spanning eight years, shows youth incarcerated in state-run...

Abstract Diversion programs allow criminal justice actors to send defendants out of the court system, compelling them instead to attend treatment programs, participate in educational opportunities, and/or perform community service. These...

This report, Preventing Youth Arrests through Deflection: Best Practices and Recommendations, is a collection of research-informed best-practices from the Commission for effective deflection programs for youth. As a state advisory group...

Abstract This Campbell systematic review examines the effects police-initiated diversion programs on delinquent behavior, compared to traditional system processing. The review summarizes evidence from nineteen high-quality studies...

Executive Summary Over the past two decades, the United States has made significant strides in adopting evidence-based approaches to juvenile justice. However, America still has relatively high juvenile arrest rates, which are correlated...

Introduction Over the past few decades, juvenile crime (i.e., “delinquency”), arrests and confinement have begun to decline—a trend that directly correlates with states and localities moving away from overly punitive, “tough on crime”...