NJJEC Bulletin July 2012

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?

In response to feedback we 

have received through the 

needs assessment and past 

webinars, NJJEC is developing 

two sustainability toolkits to 

assist juvenile justice 

practitioners in maintaining 

their successful programs. 

One toolkit is geared towards 

grant-making or administering 

agencies, while the other is 

designed to assist grant 

recipients working directly 

with youth or in a component 

of the juvenile justice system. 

The toolkits will be made 

available on the NJJEC website

this fall.

NJJEC staff will participate in 

the August meeting of the 

Federal Advisory Commission 

on Juvenile Justice (FACJJ) on 

August 10 at 3:00 p.m. EDT. 

An NJJEC staff member will 

present about the work of the 

Center, and consult the FACJJ 

on ways the project can 

address knowledge gaps and 

some of the priorities of the 

Commission. The webinar 

meeting is open to the public, 

but all attendees must register 

on the FACJJ website in 

advance. Tune in to hear 

about the work of the FACJJ 

and NJJEC! 

Upcoming Events of 

Interest

U.S. Department of Education’s 

Office of Safe and Healthy 

Students

August 2012

The Office of Safe and Healthy 

Students will hold its National 

Conference, “Meeting the 

Challenge: Building and 

Sustaining Capacity to Improve 

Conditions for Learning” in 

Washington, DC August 8-9. The 

conference will include topics like 

gender-based violence and 

bullying that impact youths’ 

school performance. Check the 

conference website for more 

information and to register!

Center for Juvenile Justice 

Reform

October 2012

The Center for Juvenile Justice 

Reform will hold a certificate 

program entitled, “Juvenile Justice 

and Child Welfare: Multi-System 

Integration Certificate Program for 

Public Sector Leaders” October 10-

17 in Washington, DC. The 

purpose of the program is to 

increase knowledge about 

programs and practices that 

address the problems of 

adolescents involved in a 

multitude of youth services. 

Check the CJJR website for more 

information about the application 

process.
NJJEC Bulletin Page 2

Featured Resources:

Using Evidence-Based Practices from 

Non-Justice Fields

As we have discussed in past issues of the 

Bulletin, there are a number of resources 

available to the juvenile justice community 

offering information about effective prevention 

and intervention practices. These resources 

gauge the state of the evidence on a particular 

topic, and rate the quality of support available 

for a program or practice. They might be called 

systematic reviews, databases, or program 

guides. These reviews are helpful to juvenile 

justice professionals because they translate 

research into a usable, easy-to-understand 

format. 

We assume many of our readers are familiar 

with OJP-sponsored evidence-based practice 

resources such as CrimeSolutions.gov, the 

Model Programs Guide, and Blueprints for 

Violence Prevention that offer information on 

best practices in juvenile justice. You might be 

less familiar with some of the youth-related 

resources available in other fields, such as 

education, social services, and mental health. 

This information on evidence-based practices 

in other fields can be applied to both 

prevention and intervention efforts in juvenile 

justice. Here are a few of these resources: 

HEALTH: Community Preventive Services 

Task Force. The Task Force is an independent, 

group of public health and prevention experts

appointed by the Director of the Centers for 

Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The 

purpose of the task force is to provide evidencebased recommendations about community 

preventive services, programs, and policies that 

are effective in saving lives, increasing 

longevity, and improving Americans’ quality of 

life. With oversight from the Task Force, 

scientists and subject matter experts from the 

CDC conduct reviews in collaboration with a 

wide range of government, academic, policy, 

and practice-based partners. The compilation 

of all Task Force findings, along with the 

systematic reviews on which they are based, is 

known as the Guide to Community Preventive 

Services (Community Guide; 

www.thecommunityguide.org).

The Community Preventive Services Task Force 

classifies its findings into three categories: 

recommended, recommended against, and 

insufficient evidence, and explains the meaning 

behind these labels on the website. The Task 

Force has published violence prevention 

reviews for early childhood home visitation, 

firearms laws, reducing psychological harm 

from traumatic events, school-based violence 

prevention programs, therapeutic foster care, 

and youth transfer to adult criminal system. 

EDUCATION: Doing What Works (DWW). 

The U.S. Department of Education’s Doing 

What Works: Research-Based Education 

Practices Online provides resources available 

for a variety of education-related topics, 

including literacy, math and science 

instruction, and quality teaching practices. 

DWW provides lists of recommended practices 

for each topic, state and district tools for 

practitioners to use in assessing their strategies 

for approaching these issues and implementing 

interventions, and short interviews with subject 

matter experts. The DWW Comprehensive 

Support section includes evidence-based 

practices in dropout prevention and reducing 

behavior problems in elementary school. The 

dropout prevention resources include a section 

on using data to identify high-risk students and 

appropriate interventions for these students.

PSYCHOLOGY: Evidence-Based Mental 

Health Treatment for Children and 

Adolescents. Created by the Association for 

Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) 

and the Society of Clinical Child and 
NJJEC Bulletin Page 3

Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP), the 

Evidence-Based Mental Health Treatment for 

Children and Adolescents online resource 

provides information on best practices in 

psychology for both technical and nontechnical audiences. Specific courses of 

treatment are rated as “well-established,”

“probably efficacious,” and “possibly 

efficacious,” with definitions for each of these 

categories that explain the methodology and 

strength of the evidence supporting these 

practices. Topics that are of interest to 

juvenile justice practitioners include school 

refusal behaviors, disruptive behavior 

problems, and substance abuse. The site also 

provides definitions for evidence-based 

practice (EBT) and empirically supported 

treatments (EST), and an informative 

discussion of myths related to these types of 

practices.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY: The Campbell 

Library. The Campbell Collaboration 

Library of Systematic Reviews includes 

reviews from a variety of fields relevant to 

juvenile justice practitioners. Youth-related 

topics include dropout prevention, youth 

empowerment programs, cognitive 

behavioral therapy, and cyber abuse 

interventions. Each systematic review

explains the criteria for studies to be 

reviewed and the specific methodology used 

to find and examine the research, as well as 

the specific type of outcome for which the 

intervention has been demonstrated 

effective. In addition, C2 systematic reviews 

identify knowledge gaps where further study 

is needed. 

Evaluation Feature:

Moving Innovation to EvidenceBased Practice

While there are established evidence-based 

practices (EBP) addressing a variety of issues in 

juvenile justice, an EBP is not always available 

that perfectly suits the target population, 

problem, or local conditions. Many 

practitioners face the challenge of wanting to 

use evidence-based or data-driven approaches, 

but are unable to find a program or practice 

that exactly meets their needs.

An innovative program, practice, or policy is 

one that is grounded in research or evidencebased practice, but has not yet been thoroughly 

evaluated. For example, changes might be 

made to an existing EBP to increase its 

appropriateness for teenage youth when it was 

previously used only for younger adolescents. 

An EBP might be adapted to meet specific 

cultural needs, or to be more appropriate for 

girls instead of boys. Use of innovative 

programs and practices is an important part of 

expanding the evidence-base of practices that 

are effective for different populations, 

problems, and conditions. 

One of the most critical concerns of innovation 

is proper measurement of implementation. It is 

important to collect information on innovative 

program characteristics and processes, so that 

the program can eventually be evaluated and 

replicated. 

A recent survey conducted by researchers from 

the National Center for Mental Health and 

Juvenile Justice is a good example of collecting 

process data about an innovative program. The 

researchers collected information on juvenile 
mental health courts and the youth being served 

by these courts. While there are several types of 

adult specialty courts for which there is 

evidence of effectiveness, applying the concept 

to youth is a relatively new practice that has yet 

to be evaluated. 

The authors collected information on critical 

elements of specialty courts, such as the 

organizations responsible for and involved with 

the court, the referral process, funding sources, 

the agencies and organizations involved in 

treatment, and the length of participation 

required by youth. They also collected 

demographic information about participants, 

and the offenses and mental illnesses of court 

admissions. In addition, the survey included 

questions about exclusions from the court—for 

example, many will not accept sex offenders or 

youth with gang-related charges—as well as the 

plea requirements of court participants. 

This information is critical because any of these 

elements might impact the effectiveness of the 

courts—that is, the ability to improve outcomes 

for youth who participate in mental health 

court. The survey also provides information for 

others wishing to implement a juvenile mental 

health court in a new jurisdiction. 

State Spotlight: Idaho

One of the challenges faced by state agencies 

that administer grant funds is to allow local 

jurisdictions to address the needs of their 

communities, while at the same time 

maintaining uniform, clearly defined goals and 

expectations of these jurisdictions.

The Idaho Juvenile Justice Commission (IJJC) 

is a state agency that focuses on data-driven 

strategies to address the core priorities of the 

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

Act (JJDPA). The IJJC works with seven 

District Councils and a Tribal Council in 

planning and facilitate best practices in 

juvenile justice in their own jurisdictions. The 

Councils comprise community representatives 

who work to develop an Action Plan for 

juvenile justice programs and initiatives in 

their local area. 

Idaho’s 3-Year Plan for Juvenile Justice 2012-

2015: Action Plan Guidelines for Juvenile 

Justice Councils outlines the need for plans to 

include data to define local needs and 

substantiate the program plan, the plan for 

reporting to outside stakeholders, and the 

specific priorities and recommendations of the 

Councils. The Action Plan Template, 

available for viewing on the Plan Tools page of 

IJJC’s website, provides an outline for program 

planning that includes sections for 

demonstrating program goals, objectives, and 

related activities, and includes a field for the 

JJDPA area addressed by the program. These 

resources provide a standardized format while 

still allowing individual Councils to determine 

their needs and the best approaches to resolve 

these needs in their local contexts.

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.