NJJEC Bulletin May 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?

NJJEC staff members have 

created a second narrated 

slideshow entitled 

Understanding Juvenile Justice 

Evaluation Reports. This 

resource introduces and 

explains some of the key 

concepts in juvenile outcome 

evaluation research, and 

helps practitioners be able to 

identify good evaluation 

reports. This resource and 

Hiring and Working With An 

Evaluator are available on the 

NJJEC Skill-Building Page.

Thanks to all who 

participated in our webinar, 

“Making ‘What Works’ Work 

for You: Evidence-Based 

Components and Adaptation”

on April 25th! We received 

some fantastic questions. 

The archived webinar has 

been posted on the NTTAC 

site as well the NJJEC 

Trainings page.

Staff are currently developing 

our next set of resources on 

the basics of using 

spreadsheets to record and 

analyze evaluation data. 

Upcoming Events of 

Interest

National Children’s 

Alliance 2013 Leadership 

Conference

June 2-June 5

The National Children’s 

Alliance will hold its 2013 

Leadership Conference 

titled, On the Horizon: The

Next Chapter in Child 

Advocacy in Washington, 

DC June 2 - June 5. The 

conference provides an 

education, networking, and 

advocacy opportunity for 

leaders in the Children’s 

Advocacy Center (CAC) 

movement. Check the 

website for conference 

information and to register! 

8

th Annual National 

School Safety Conference

July 22-July 26

The School Safety Advocacy 

Council will host the

National School Safety 

Conference in Las Vegas, 

Nevada, July 22 through 26. 

Session topics include 

substance use, school 

violence, bullying, and 

mental health. Registration 

and a tentative schedule are 

available on the conference 

website. 

 
NJJEC Bulletin Page 2

Featured Resources:

What Works Clearinghouse

Our recent webinar on Evidence-Based 

Components and Adaptation discussed ways 

to apply effective strategies for working with 

youth in new settings, and how to make

changes to existing evidence-based program 

plans to fit a specific context. This broader, 

components-based approach to evidencebased practice allows juvenile justice 

practitioners to make use of the knowledge 

base of other disciplines such as social 

welfare and education. We discussed the 

advantages of using this knowledge in the 

July 2012 and March 2013 editions of the 

NJJEC Bulletin. 

Understanding the processes by which 

children and teens learn is a key element in

changing behavior. The What Works 

Clearinghouse (WWC) is a project of the 

Institute of Education Sciences, funded by 

the U.S. Department of Education. The 

purpose of the project is to provide 

educators with information about best 

practices. Topics of particular interest to 

practitioners working with justice-involved 

youth include dropout prevention and 

student behavior. 

The WWC provides Practice Guides on 

resolving common problems and issues in 

school settings, including behavioral 

problems. The Intervention Reports include 

topics such as Peer-Assisted Learning 

Strategies and Social Skills Training. Each 

report describes the specific intervention 

and available research, including the quality 

of the research as determined by WWC’s 

standards. 

Another useful resource provided by the 

WWC is the What Works Clearinghouse 

Reporting Guide for Study Authors. This 

two-page guide provides information about 

reporting program results, including specific 

information about the ways program data 

were collected, how missing data are

addressed, and descriptions of baseline data 

and outcome measures for comparison. 

The WWC’s Single Study Reviews assess the 

quality of a single research study that has 

been conducted on a program, practice, or 

policy of interest. These reviews can assist 

practitioners seeking to understand how to 

gauge the quality of evaluation studies by 

discussing the value and shortcoming of 

different approaches to evaluation. For 

example, the WWC Review of the Report 

“High School Students as Mentors: Findings 

from the Big Brothers Big Sisters SchoolBased Mentoring Impact Study” outlines the 

elements of an evaluation of Big Brothers Big 

Sisters, including the setting in which the 

program was implemented, a description of 

the study’s intervention and comparison 

groups, and the outcomes and 

measurement. These reviews also contain a 

helpful glossary that defines statistical terms 

in plain language. 

Evaluation Feature:

Navajo Nation 

Project Safe Neighborhoods 

NJJEC’s most recent webinar, Making “What 

Works” Work for You: Evidence-Based 

Components and Adaptation focused on a 

variety of ways to approach the 

implementation of best and promising

practices in new contexts. Continual review 

of program implementation—both what is 

working well and the challenges being 

faced—is essential to applying evidence-
NJJEC Bulletin Page 3

based approaches in new settings and contexts. 

An assessment of how well the program is being 

implemented should include the unique 

characteristics of the setting and target 

population, as well as a review of program 

activities that have been established as planned 

and those that are facing implementation

challenges.

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is a promising 

practice designed to address gun violence. The 

program includes law enforcement, intervention, 

and prevention efforts and creates partnerships 

between government entities and community 

organizations. 

Recently, the New Mexico Statistical Analysis 

Center located at the University of New Mexico’s 

Institute for Social Research released a report 

evaluating the implementation of Project Safe 

Neighborhoods on Navajo tribal lands in New 

Mexico. The report, Evaluation of Dlo’ayazhi 

Project Safe Neighborhoods, discusses some of 

the unique challenges related to implementing

PSN in this setting. The report’s authors used 

semi-structured interviews with PSN Task Force 

Members, observations of Task Force meetings, 

and quarterly written reports to conduct the

process evaluation. They examined the specific 

successes and challenges that occurred while 

implementing an urban-oriented program in a 

rural, tribal area.

One of the substantial challenges to 

implementing PSN identified by the authors was 

concentrated disadvantage coupled with a lack of 

infrastructure, making service delivery more 

difficult than in a populated urban area. Limited 

resources for tribal law enforcement as well as 

complications resulting from the intersection of 

tribal, state, and federal law enforcement 

jurisdictions were also noted as hurdles to 

program implementation. 

The process evaluation compared and contrasted 

proposed project activities with current 

activities. For example, in the area of 

prevention, proposed activities included 

school-based Gang Resistance Education And 

Training (GREAT) and delivering educational 

sessions in the community. The authors 

describe the substantial ongoing school- and 

community-based educational activities that 

have been carried out with success, but note 

that GREAT sessions have not continued to 

occur with regularity. 

The report also assesses the successes of 

collaboration efforts among tribal, state, and 

federal agencies as well as local community 

organizations. Task force meetings, the 

involvement of community partners, and the 

ability of law enforcement to work across 

jurisdictions increased collaboration, a key 

component of the success of PSN. Notable 

barriers to collaboration included jurisdictional 

boundaries, limited attendance by some key 

members, and periodic turnover. General 

project facilitators included buy-in from 

involved agencies and other stakeholders, the 

continuation of the project compared to other 

short-lived efforts, and the adaptability of the 

program to involve community members and 

respond to local needs. 

The full report is available online.

Local Spotlight: 

Maricopa County, AZ

Maricopa County, Arizona has implemented 

three new strategies in its Juvenile Probation 

Department to address Disproportionate 

Minority Contact (DMC). These strategies 

were recently evaluated in a study by Dr. Nancy 

Rodriguez of Arizona State University and Dr. 

Elizabeth Eells of the Maricopa County Juvenile 

Probation Department in their March 2013 
report, An Impact Evaluation of Three Strategies 

Created to Reduce Disproportionate Minority 

Contact and the Detention Population.

Maricopa County Juvenile Probation began new 

efforts to reduce the detention population and 

DMC within detention after assessments and 

workgroups found racial and ethnic differences 

in multiple case processing decision points, 

similar to many jurisdictions. 

Maricopa County Juvenile Probation Department 

revised their Detention Index by removing 

aggravating and mitigating factors, and changing 

the weight of certain legal factors in the Index. 

In addition to reducing juvenile detention 

overall, these changes were expected to reduce 

the proportion of minority youth in detention. 

The Department instituted a new policy 

requiring supervisor approval for cases in which 

a probation officer chooses to detain a youth 

who does not meet the standards for detention 

according to the Detention Index. The 

Department also instituted a continuous review 

policy, such that cases involving detained youth 

are continually examined for reasons the youth 

are detained. Probation officers are required to 

record the reasons the youth is detained, and 

whether or not the probation officer will 

recommend release at the youth’s next court 

appearance. The review policy (Detention 

Release Reports) practice has been 

discontinued but continues to inform work 

around detention reform, specifically the 

Department’s participation in the statewide 

Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. 

Rodriguez and Eells’ report states that juvenile 

referrals have declined since 2007, as have 

Maricopa probation and detention populations. 

Further, racial and ethnic differences in court 

outcomes have declined. Changes to the 

Detention Index resulted in reductions in the 

proportion of mandatory detentions. While the 

likelihood of discretionary detention is still 

higher for Black youth compared to White 

youth, the overall number of discretionary 

detentions has declined since the Department 

implemented a policy requiring supervisor 

approval for Detention Index overrides. 

The study also included the collection of 

qualitative data from probation officer 

interviews. The interviews showed that 

probation officers had a generally negative 

perception of the Detention Release Reports, 

and did not feel that the reports had any effect 

on length of detention. This assertion was 

consistent with analysis showing that the 

average number of days in detention was 

already declining prior to the 2007 institution 

of the Detention Release Report, a decline that 

continued until 2009 when it increased slightly. 

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.