NJJEC Bulletin August 2015

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, email 

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?

As JRSA’s NJJEC project 

winds down, we are 

undertaking an effort to 

organize all of the juvenile 

justice evaluation material 

developed over the life of the 

project into a structured, 

integrated learning system. 

This system, which we hope 

will be incorporated into 

OJJDP’s Online University, 

will allow users to identify 

their level of evaluation 

knowledge and provide 

information tailored to their 

level of need. For further 

information, contact us at 

njjec@jrsa.org.

Upcoming Events 

of Interest

21st National Symposium on 

Juvenile Services

September 27th – October 1st, 

2015

The National Partnership for 

Juvenile Services will host a 

forum that brings together 

the leadership and direct care 

professionals from juvenile 

services and other human 

services professionals for 

training and the opportunity 

to network and share 

innovative program service 

approaches being 

implemented within 

the juvenile justice system 

throughout the country.

More details and registration 

information are available 

online.

National Association for 

Justice Information 

Systems

October 5th – October 8th, 2015

The National Association for 

Justice Information Systems

will host its 33rd annual 

conference geared to educate 

and demonstrate best 

practices for justice 

information system 

implementation and business 

process flow. NAJIS focuses on 

delivering materials 

constructed for long-term, 

technology driven, 

government ROI. More details 

and registration information 

are available here.

3rd International 

Conference on Youth 

Mental Health

October 8th – October 10th, 2015

The International Association 

for Youth Mental Health in 

partnership with the Graham 

Boeckh Foundation (GBF) and 

McGill University’s Douglas 
NJJEC Bulletin Page 2

Institute and the Access Network 

and University of Montreal, will 

host a conference on how to make

the transition from traditional 

mental health service models to 

the next generation of programs 

and services that will better meet 

the needs of young people and 

emerging adults. More details and 

information are available here.

2015 Juvenile Justice and Child 

Welfare Multi-System 

Integration Certificate Program

October 29

th – November 4th, 2015

The Center for Juvenile Justice 

Reform (CJJR) at Georgetown 

University's McCourt School of 

Public Policy is currently 

accepting applications for its 8th 

Annual Juvenile Justice and Child 

Welfare: Multi-System Integration 

Certificate program. The program 

will focus on how to improve 

outcomes for youth known to 

both the child welfare and juvenile 

justice systems through a multidisciplinary approach that 

highlights integration and 

collaboration. More details and 

registration information are 

available online.

Featured Resources:

Publications

A new brief released by the 

Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ)

looks at the disparities faced in 

state systems by American Indian 

and Alaska Native youth who are 

charged with status offenses, the 

ability of both state and tribal 

systems to respond to status 

offenses, and federal funding levels to support 

efforts to better serve these youth. According to 

the brief, “American Indian and Alaska Native 

(AI/AN) young people are almost twice as likely 

to be petitioned to state court for skipping 

school, violating liquor laws, and engaging in 

other behaviors that are only illegal because of 

their age (often known as status offenses). Once 

involved with the state court system, they are

less likely to be placed on probation and 

experience higher rates of detention and 

residential placements” (p. 1, CJJ, 2015).

The full version of this brief can be viewed 

online here.

In a briefing paper entitled, “Strengthening 

Youth Justice Practices with Developmental 

Knowledge and Principles,” Dr. Jeffrey A Butts, 

outlines a framework for informing practices of 

youth-serving organizations. The model, Positive 

Youth Justice (PYJ), “suggests that youth justice 

systems should focus on youths’ acquisition of 

two core developmental assets (learning/doing 

and attaching/belonging). These two assets 

should be acquired and experienced by every 

youth within six distinct domains (work, 

education, relationships, community, health, 

and creativity)” (p. 1). Stated differently, “The 

PYJ Model is simply a method of organizing 

youth-related work to leverage the positive 

forces of adolescent development for all young 

people” (p. 1-2).

The full version of the brief can be viewed online 

here.

In an article entitled, “Protecting LGBTQ Youth 

in the Juvenile Justice System – Progress and 

Opportunity,” Judy Yu, associate Director of 

LGBTQ Youth Issues for the Juvenile Justice 

Project at the Correctional Association of New 

York, highlights the progress made thus far in 

advocating and engaging stakeholders in 
NJJEC Bulletin Page 3

creating cultures and practices sensitive to 

LGBTQ youth in juvenile detention facilities. 

LGBTQ youth often face harassment and 

mistreatment while in juvenile detention 

centers. Ms. Yu points out the need for 

continued progress and calls for advocates to 

push for model policies to protect courtinvolved LBGTQ youth. The full article, which 

includes examples of model practices, can be 

read online here. 

Featured Resources: 

Online

The National Center for Youth in Custody 

(NCYC), the National Institute of Corrections 

(NIC), and the National Partnership for 

Juvenile Services (NPJS), have developed an 

online resource for juvenile justice 

professionals. The resource, Desktop Guide to 

Quality Practice for Working with Youth in 

Confinement, is a comprehensive guide that 

provides research and theory-informed 

practices to guide juvenile justice operations.

The Coalition for Juvenile Justice and its 

Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Committee

hosted a webinar on Racial Impact Statements 

on June 1. Racial impact statements have been 

introduced into legislation to address 

differential impact on racial and ethnic groups. 

Participants learned about the history of 

legislation and racial impact statements, 

success stories in the states, recommendations 

for methods to assess racial impact, and how 

these assessments can work in practice. Click 

here to watch the webinar recording.

The National Center for Juvenile Justice has 

released a new section of the Juvenile Justice 

GPS-Geography, Policy, Practice & Statistics 

(JJGPS), an online resource to showcase 

statistics about state laws and practices to 

chart changes in juvenile justice. The new

section, on status offense issues, examines how 

states classify status offenders and includes a 

summary of status offenses in each state. This 

section also profiles national data on status 

offenses and trend data from the states on 

formal status offense cases referred to court.

Featured Evaluations:

Protect, Heal, Thrive: Lessons 

Learned from the Defending 

Childhood Demonstration Program 

&

Multijurisdictional Teen Court 

Evaluation:

A Comparative Evaluation of

Three Teen Court Models

NIJ recently released a report, "Protect, Heal, 

Thrive: Lessons Learned from the Defending 

Childhood Demonstration Program.” This 

report, completed by the Center for Court 

Innovation, highlights the implementation 

strategies, lessons learned, and promising 

practices in six demonstration sites tasked 

with addressing the high prevalence of 

children's exposure to violence. The six sites

included: Boston, MA; Chippewa Cree Tribe, 

Rocky Boy’s Reservation, MT; Cuyahoga

County, OH; Grand Forks, ND; Rosebud 

Sioux Tribe, SD; and Shelby County, TN. 

This national initiative aimed: 1) to prevent 

children’s exposure to violence; 2) to mitigate 

the negative impact of such exposure when it 

does occur; and 3) to develop knowledge and 

spread awareness about children’s exposure 

to violence, both within and beyond the 

chosen pilot sites.

The development and implementation of 

comprehensive strategies to achieve these

aims included both universal and targeted 

prevention programs; case management and 

treatment interventions for children who had 
`

been exposed to violence; community 

awareness and education; and professional 

training designed to increase the knowledge 

of children’s exposure to violence, traumainformed care, and the use of proven 

evidence-based or promising treatment 

practices.

The full report can be read here. 

A recent report featuring an evaluation of 

teen courts in Maryland revealed, teen courts 

produce lower rates of recidivism compared 

to traditional juvenile processing. This report 

presents data on the processes, outcomes, and 

perspectives of teen courts using data 

gathered in teen courts in three 

geographically diverse localities in Maryland: 

Baltimore City, Charles County, and 

Montgomery County. 

The study also assessed recidivism data 

collected by matching cases from the three 

courts with data from the Maryland 

Department of Juvenile Services. 

Observations and structured interviews 

yielded process data, while survey and 

interview data provided rich information from 

the perspectives of teen court volunteers, 

youth respondents involved in teen courts, 

and parents or guardians of these 

respondents. The evaluation was conducted 

by the University of Maryland School of 

Social Work, the Institute for Governmental 

Service and Research, and the Court 

Operations Department of the 

Administrative Office of the Courts, with 

substantial input from the three teen courts 

and the Maryland Teen Court Association.

The full report can be found online here.

NJJEC Bulletin Page 4

The 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.