NJJEC Bulletin July 2013

The NJJEC Bulletin

NJJEC is a project of the 

Justice Research and 

Statistics Association 

funded by the Office of 

Juvenile Justice and 

Delinquency Prevention

(OJJDP). NJJEC’s purpose is 

to improve the evaluation 

capacity of states, localities, 

and tribes and facilitate the 

use of evidence-based 

programs and practices in 

juvenile justice. The NJJEC 

Bulletin is disseminated 

directly to subscribers and 

posted on the NJJEC 

website, and provides 

information related to 

juvenile justice evaluation 

that is of interest to state, 

local, and tribal juvenile 

justice professionals. 

We welcome your 

participation! If you would

like to submit an article, 

suggest a news item for the 

Bulletin, or ask a question 

about evaluation, e-mail 

njjec@jrsa.org. For more 

information about the 

resources available through 

the National Juvenile Justice 

Evaluation Center, visit the 

NJJEC website. 

What’s Going On at 

NJJEC? 

A new Logic Model Toolkit is 

now available on the NJJEC 

resources page. This toolkit 

provides some basic 

information about the 

components of a logic model, 

and includes three templates 

that can be filled in or 

modified to meet your 

program’s needs. For more 

information about program 

logic, see Part 2: Introduction 

to Program Logic and Part 3: 

Advanced Program Logic of 

our webinar series on 

assessing project performance. 

On September 5, NJJEC staff 

will deliver a webinar entitled 

Demystifying Survey Data 

Collection. Panelists will 

discuss the basics of survey 

data collection and reporting. 

Registration is available on the 

NTTAC website!

Upcoming Events of 

Interest

Coalition of Juvenile Justice 

Youth Summit

August 2-3

The Coalition for Juvenile 

Justice will host its 2013 Youth 

Summit in Washington, DC 

from August 2nd to 3rd. The 

Summit provides juvenile 

justice reform information for 

young people ages 16-30. 

Review conference 

information online. 

25th Annual Crimes Against 

Children Conference

August 12-15

The Dallas Children’s 

Advocacy Center will host the 

25th Annual Crimes Against 

Children Conference August 12 

through 15 in Dallas, Texas. 

The conference provides 

information and training to 

children’s service professionals 

from government agencies and 

non-profits. Register online.

Global Implementation 

Conference 

August 19-21

On August 19 through 21, the 

Global Implementation 

Conference will be held in 

Washington, DC. The 

conference promotes the use 

of implementation science to 

researchers, policymakers, and 

practitioners in a variety of 

fields. The theme for this 

year’s conference is “Putting 

Implementation into Practice: 

Tools for Quality and 

Sustainability.” Registration is 

available online.
NJJEC Bulletin Page 2

39th Annual National Organization for 

Victim Assistance (NOVA) Conference 

September 15-18

The National Organization for Victim 

Assistance will host its 39th Annual 

Conference in Columbus, Ohio September 15-

18. The conference theme is Implementing the 

Tools of Our Trade to Build a Comforting 

Justice. The conference includes hundreds of 

sessions for victims professionals, including 

juvenile service providers. Check the 

conference website for more information and 

to register.

 

Featured Resources:

OJJDP Report on 

Family Drug Courts

Our April 25th webinar Making ‘What Works’ 

Work for You: Evidence-Based Components 

and Adaptation highlighted ways to apply 

knowledge about “what works” in a variety of 

settings and contexts when a well-matched 

evidence-based program is not available. The 

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 

Prevention (OJJDP) recently released a report 

entitled Guidance to the States: 

Recommendations for Developing Family Drug 

Court Guidelines that describes some 

important evidence-based components of 

these specialized courts. 

Family drug courts address a range of issues 

faced by families involved in the child welfare 

system who are also affected by issues of 

substance abuse. To determine the most 

essential components for this approach to be 

effective, a team of substance abuse and child 

welfare experts examined research studies 

and previous guideline recommendations. 

The report outlines a series of ten 

recommendations, such as developing 

interagency partnerships, developing an early 

identification and assessment process, 

implementing funding and sustainability 

strategies, and evaluating shared outcomes 

to ensure accountability. A description, 

research findings, and effective strategies are 

included for each recommendation. 

Evaluation Feature:

ICAC Task Force Child Safety 

Materials 

With funding from the National Institute of 

Justice, the Crimes Against Children 

Research Center conducted an evaluation of 

educational materials used by Internet 

Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces. 

The project included a systematic review of 

effective prevention strategies for youth, 

content analysis of the curricula of four 

widely used programs, a process evaluation 

to better understand delivery of this 

information, and an outcome survey of 6th

through 10th grade youth. 

The project resulted in the development of 

the KEEP (Known Elements of Effective 

Prevention) Checklist for practitioners 

developing and delivering internet safety 

education (ISE) programs. 

Recommendations of the checklist include a 

structured curriculum, skill-based learning 

objectives supported by research, active 

learning strategies, use of multiple sessions, 

and additional learning opportunities 

beyond initial program delivery. 

The authors found a lack of skill-based 

learning objectives and use of research to 

support program activities, objectives, and 

dosage. The majority of the programs 

included some form of audience 

participation, but these activities were 

generally intended to support messages 
NJJEC Bulletin Page 3

conveyed by the curricula rather than to give 

audience members a chance to actively apply 

skills learned during the lessons. 

The evaluation included a survey of law 

enforcement officials and school personnel 

involved in the delivery of ISE. More than half 

(62%) of surveyed ICAC Task Force presenters 

indicated that they used research to update their 

education materials. Internet predators and 

cyberbullying were the most frequently cited 

topics for programming by presenters, while 

school personnel indicated that their primary 

concerns in internet safety education were 

cyberbullying, privacy, and online reputation. 

A final component of the project was the 

development of a set of outcome measures for 

youth participating in ISE programs. The 

outcome measures more specifically targeted 

changes in victimization and youth behavior, 

rather than knowledge and attitudes, to ascertain 

actual change without the assumption that 

attitudinal change or increased knowledge would 

manifest as such. More than one-third of youth 

included in the pilot survey indicated that they 

had been victimized by at least one form of 

online harassment. Results of the survey were 

consistent with other national surveys. 

The authors included policy and practice 

implications to improve the effectiveness of 

ICAC education programs, including using 

multiple lessons to convey messages and elicit 

behavior change, reducing the use of “scare 

tactics” during educational programming, 

reexamining the efficacy of internet safety 

education for young children, tailoring 

programming activities to more specific internet 

safety topics, and more extensive use of research 

in developing educational messages and program 

logic. 

The executive summary and the full report are 

available online. 

State Spotlight:

Indiana

NJJEC’s recent webinar, Making ‘What Works’ 

Work for You: Evidence-based Components and 

Adaptation focused on the application of 

evidence-based strategies and techniques when 

a well-suited evidence-based program is not 

available. Performance measurement and 

evaluation are still key pieces to assess 

implementation and determine if a strategy 

works in a specific context or for a specific 

target population. 

Recent work by Indiana Criminal Justice 

Institute (ICJI) and the Center for Criminal 

Justice Research (CCJR) at the Indiana 

University Public Policy Institute is consistent 

with this approach. ICJI and CCJR have 

produced a series of reports outlining best 

practices for several funding streams 

administered by ICJI. The reports include a list 

of recommendations for improving practice 

and supporting the use of research evidence in 

grant applications and program 

implementation. 

The most recent report, Review of Best 

Practices for ICJI Program Areas and Funding 

Streams: Sexual Assault Services Program 

(SASP) and Sexual Offense Services (SOS)

included a list of specific best practices already 

employed by ICJI subgrantees, such as Sexual 

Assault Recovery Team (SART) and the Sexual 

Assault Nurse Examiner program (SANE). The 

report provides a summary of more general 

techniques and practices to ensure the use of 

research evidence to support program planning 

and operations for each relevant service area: 

general services, crisis response/intervention, 

victim advocacy, mental health services, and 

sexual assault prevention. Best practices 

include strategies such as establishing and 

maintaining consistent referral procedures 
(general services), developing and maintaining 

protocols with local agencies and hospitals 

specifying how medical exams and interviews 

should be conducted (crisis response/ 

intervention), and utilizing a trauma-informed 

care approach with victims of sexual assault 

(mental health services). 

In 2011 ICJI published a similar report on Juvenile 

Accountability Block Grant (JABG) programs as 

part of the same series. The report contains 11 

purpose area sheets describing evidence-based 

techniques or strategies ascertained from a 

review of research evidence. The purpose areas 

are Funding for Prosecutors, Training for Law 

Enforcement and Court Personnel, Juvenile 

Records System, Information Sharing, 

Accountability-Based Programs, Risk and Needs 

Assessment, School Safety, Restorative Justice, 

Juvenile Courts and Probation, Detention and 

Corrections Personnel, and Reentry. 

Examples of evidence-based programs and 

practices include the inclusion of quality-control 

mechanisms in data collection (juvenile records 

system), providing more intensive interventions 

for youth with high risk levels (risk and needs 

assessment), and the use of wraparound models 

(juvenile courts and probation). 

Each purpose area sheet notes OJJDP-required 

performance measures for that area, as well as 

important considerations in programming 

identified from these measures. Key references 

are included as well. 

The report concludes with a set of 

recommendations to ICJI to encourage best 

practices (see page 20):

1. Provide more leadership in recruiting 

proposals from the key purpose areas.

2. Use the purpose area summary sheets and 

list of model programs as tools to inform 

potential grantees of key focuses and 

principles of program design and 

implementation.

3. Explore ways to thoughtfully address 

training in future requests for funding.

4. Explore ways to raise the level of 

appreciation and consideration for 

collaboration in JABG-funded projects.

5. Provide education on the meaning of key 

initiatives.

6. Be more conscious of the strategic goals in 

the three-year plan when making funding 

decisions.

7. Provide quality training on OJJDP’s core 

performance measures to potential and 

existing grantees.

8. Develop expertise on the purpose areas and 

offer technical assistance to enhance the 

capacity of the local jurisdictions. 

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NJJEC Bulletin is the newsletter of the National Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center. It provides information on NJJEC 

project activities, evaluation-related activities of OJJDP grantees, and upcoming trainings and conferences of interest.

To access NJJEC project information and resources: http://www.jrsa.org/njjec/

To subscribe: http://www.jrsa.org/njjec/newsletter.htm

To unsubscribe: e-mail njjec@jrsa.org

NJJEC is a Project of the Justice Research and Statistics Association. 

Notice of Federal Funding and Federal Disclaimer: This document was prepared under Grant Number 2010-JF-FX-0063 from the 

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or 

opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the 

U.S. Department of Justice.