NJJEC Bulletin March 2014

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? 

Thank you to all who attended 

our February 6 webinar, Drilling 

Down: An Analytical Look at 

EBP Resources! The archived 

webinar is available on the 

NJJEC and NTTAC websites.

On March 20, NJJEC and 

OJJDP’s National Training and 

Technical Assistance Center 

(NTTAC) hosted a webinar on a 

recent evaluation of 19 juvenile 

diversion programs supported 

by Title II funds through the 

Colorado Division of Criminal 

Justice (CDCJ). Meg Williams of 

CDCJ and Dr. Jean Denious from 

the OMNI Institute’s evaluation 

team highlighted the steps 

necessary to work with an 

external evaluator, and some of 

the challenges associated with 

multi-site program evaluation. 

The diversion evaluation report 

and related materials are 

available online. The archived 

webinar will be available in the 

next few weeks on the NJJEC 

and NTTAC websites. 

Do you have a suggestion for a new 

webinar topic or resource? Email

njjec@jrsa.org! 

Upcoming Events of 

Interest

Friends for Youth Annual 

Mentoring Conference

April 24-25

Friends for Youth will host its 

15

th Annual Mentoring 

Conference April 24 through 25 

in Santa Clara, California. 

Conference sessions will focus 

on effective mentoring practices 

of interest to mentoring and 

youth development 

professionals, including 

volunteer recruitment and 

training. Check the conference 

website for more information 

and to register!

19th National Conference on 

Child Abuse and Neglect 

(NCCAN)

April 30-May 2

The U.S. Department of Health 

and Human Services

Administration for Children and 

Families will convene its 19th

National Conference on Child 

Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN) 

April 30 through May 2 in New 

Orleans, Louisiana. 

The conference will provide 

useful sessions on child abuse 

and neglect for a range of child 

service practitioners and 
NJJEC Bulletin Page 2

policymakers, including those in education, 

therapy, substance abuse and mental health 

treatment, and public health agencies. 

Register and find more information on the 

conference website.

Boys and Girls Clubs of America National 

Conference

May 1-3

Registration is available online for the

National Conference for the Boys and Girls 

Clubs of America. The conference will be 

held in San Francisco, California May 1 

through May 3. The agenda includes 

networking opportunities and discussions 

about youth development programs and 

techniques. 

NCCD Conference on Children, Youth, 

and Families

May 14-16

The National Council on Crime and 

Delinquency will host its Conference on 

Children, Youth, and Families May 14 

through 16 in San Diego, California. The 

conference is designed for all youth-oriented 

service systems, including child welfare, 

juvenile justice, and education. The 

conference website includes registration 

information and the schedule of events. 

NCA Leadership Conference

June 1-4

The National Children’s Alliance will host a 

Leadership Conference June 1 through 4 in 

Washington, DC. Leaders in the Children’s 

Advocacy Center (CAC) movement will learn 

about CAC efforts in areas such as child 

pornography, human trafficking, child abuse 

and sexual exploitation. The conference 

website provides a detailed agenda and 

registration information. 

Featured Resource:

Administration for 

Children and Families 

Roadmap for Evaluation in Tribal 

Communities

The United States Department of Health and 

Human Services Administration for Children and 

Families Children’s Bureau recently released a 

Roadmap for Collaborative and Effective 

Evaluation in Tribal Communities. The 

publication addresses the sources of resistance to 

evaluation in tribal communities, many of which 

can also be found in non-tribal communities. 

Fear of judgment, distrust of evaluation methods, 

a lack of understanding of local contexts and past 

community trauma are some of the barriers to 

conducting program evaluation in these 

communities. 

The Roadmap outlines seven values that must be 

incorporated in tribal evaluation: Indigenous 

Ways of Knowing, Respect for Tribal Sovereignty, 

Strengths Focus, Cultural and Scientific Rigor, 

Community Engagement, Ethical Practices, and 

Knowledge Sharing. It emphasizes the need to 

increase the capacity of tribal communities to 

collect and assess their own data, and to meet the 

standards of rigorous research in these 

communities while maintaining respect for their 

history and cultural uniqueness. This is turn 

encourages participation in evaluation, as the 

work is not externally imposed or conducted 

without appropriate cultural context and 

considerations. 

The report includes a graphic of the key players 

in the evaluation of child welfare programs in 

tribal communities, including tribal leaders, 

policy makers, community members, and 

universities, and notes the need to incorporate 

cultural values and historical context in any 

evaluation effort.
NJJEC Bulletin Page 3

Evaluation Feature:

NIJ-Funded Study

Pathways to Desistance

The National Criminal Justice Reference Service 

(NCJRS) recently released Pathways to Desistance, 

a report funded by the National Institute of 

Justice. 

Researchers used baseline and multiple follow-up 

interviews with more than 1,000 serious juvenile 

offenders from Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania 

and Maricopa County, Arizona to determine 

factors that led them away from delinquency and 

antisocial behavior. The sites were selected based 

on the occurrence of serious juvenile offending; 

sufficient representation of offending youth across 

gender, race, and ethnicity; and differences in 

juvenile justice system operations, specifically 

with regard to treatment availability. 

The interviews included questions about 

education, employment, attitudes, family and 

friend relationships, and the communities in 

which they lived. Interview data collected during 

the follow-up sessions was compared to the initial 

data from the same youth to assess changes, and 

determine some of the reasons youth had moved 

away from offending. The researchers also used 

data from other sources such as the courts, FBI, 

child welfare systems, and Medicaid.

While most of the youth (74%) were rearrested at 

some point during the follow-up period, the 

frequency of offending declined for most of the 

youth over time. One of the most important 

findings included in the report is that there were 

different ways youth desisted from offending, 

indicating that “one-size-fits-all” responses to 

juvenile offending are likely to be ineffective. For 

example, substance abuse was strongly associated 

with offending patterns, indicating that diagnosis 

and treatment of substance abuse problems and 

disorders is an important component of 

desistance. In addition, maturity and attitudes 

about delinquent behavior were associated with 

changes in offending. Further, youth who did 

not fear risks from offending itself were less 

likely to be responsive to the threat of being 

arrested or punished. These findings indicate 

that behavioral treatment promoting emotional 

development and attitudinal change about the 

legal system might contribute to reductions in 

reoffending. 

Source: Mulvey, E.P., Schubert, C.A., and Piquero, A. 

Pathways to Desistance- Final Technical Report. January 

2014. 

State Spotlight:

New Jersey

The New Jersey Parents’ Caucus, Inc (NJPC) is a 

family-driven coalition that has received funding 

from the Office of Juvenile Justice and 

Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the Substance 

Abuse and Mental Health Services 

Administration (SAMHSA), and the New Jersey 

Department of Human Services. 

NJPC’s purpose is to educate caregivers across 

the state about available services and supports, 

and engage parents in addressing the complex 

emotional and behavioral needs of children and 

youth involved in the juvenile justice, mental 

health and child welfare systems.

NJPC offers a myriad of family strengthening 

strategies and programs for families raising 

children at risk of becoming involved in the 

juvenile justice system. Programs include 

NJPC’s Professional Parent Advocacy Training 
`

for parents and family members raising justiceinvolved youth. The training comprises 15+ 

curricula including Understanding Childhood 

Mental Health Challenges and the DSM 5, 

Understanding the Juvenile Justice System in 

New Jersey, Navigating the Special Education 

System and the IEP Process, Cultural 

Competency and Multiculturalism in the ChildServing Community, and Infusing Family 

Involvement in the Child Welfare System. NJPC 

has also produced Navigating the Juvenile Justice 

System: A Family Guide, a comprehensive guide 

for parents and family members whose children 

are involved in the juvenile justice system in

both English and Spanish; and training and 

technical assistance programs such as 

Strengthening Family Engagement in the Juvenile 

Justice System for caregivers and Engaging 

Parents & Family Members of Justice-Involved 

Youth Training for juvenile justice professionals. 

NJPC’s Advocacy and Informal Support provides 

parents and caregivers with parent advocate 

volunteers who accompany them to court and 

related social service appointments. NJPC’s 

Community Outreach includes an Annual 

Outreach RV Tour in the most high-crime cities 

of New Jersey, disseminating bulletins and 

brochures to assist caregivers in navigating the 

juvenile justice system, as well as understand the 

services and resources that are available to 

system-involved youth. 

Through the support of OJJDP, NJPC has 

conducted extensive program data collection 

that spans more than 20,000 training hours 

delivered to caregivers of more than 5,000 New 

Jersey children. Caregiver knowledge and

system involvement are assessed before 

participation in the program and at one year 

after completion. Types of data include 

demographic information, caregivers’ system 

knowledge before and after participating in 

training, caregiver satisfaction with the 

usefulness of training, child mental and 

behavioral health diagnoses, number of system 

agencies with which children are involved, and 

self-report information regarding parental 

empowerment to seek and retain services for 

their children. 

The data show improvements in utilization of 

mental health, special education, and 

developmental disability services, and declines 

in the involvement of children and youth in the 

juvenile justice system. Analysis also 

demonstrated reductions in family involvement 

in the child welfare system. 

NJPC program reports are available online. For 

additional information, contact Kathy Wright,

Executive Director of the New Jersey Parent 

Caucus, Inc. 

Featured article does not represent an endorsement of the 

program(s) by the National Juvenile Justice Evaluation 

Center or the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 

Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of 

Justice. 

NJJEC Bulletin Page 4

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.