U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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REPORT

OJJDP RESEARCH:Making aDifference

forJuveniles

Research and Program Development Divisiondevelops knowledge on national trends in juveniledelinquency; supports a program for data collectionand information sharing that incorporates elementsof statistical and systems development; identifieshow delinquency develops and the best methodsfor its prevention, intervention, and treatment; andanalyzes practices and trends in the juvenile justicesystem.

Training and Technical Assistance Division pro-vides juvenile justice training and technical assist-ance to Federal, State, and local governments; lawenforcement, judiciary, and corrections personnel;and private agencies, educational institutions, andcommunity organizations.

Special Emphasis Division provides discretionaryfunds to public and private agencies, organizations,and individuals to replicate tested approaches todelinquency prevention, treatment, and control insuch pertinent areas as chronic juvenile offenders,community-based sanctions, and the disproportionaterepresentation of minorities in the juvenile justicesystem.

State Relations and Assistance Division supportscollaborative efforts by States to carry out the man-dates of the JJDP Act by providing formula grantfunds to States; furnishing technical assistance toStates, local governments, and private agencies;and monitoring State compliance with the JJDP Act.

Information Dissemination Unit informs individualsand organizations of OJJDP initiatives; disseminatesinformation on juvenile justice, delinquency preven-tion, and missing children; and coordinates programplanning efforts within OJJDP. The unit’s activitiesinclude publishing research and statistical reports,bulletins, and other documents, as well as overseeingthe operations of the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse.

Concentration of Federal Efforts Program pro-motes interagency cooperation and coordinationamong Federal agencies with responsibilities in thearea of juvenile justice. The program primarily carriesout this responsibility through the Coordinating Coun-cil on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, anindependent body within the executive branch thatwas established by Congress through the JJDP Act.

Missing and Exploited Children’s Program seeks topromote effective policies and procedures for address-ing the problem of missing and exploited children.Established by the Missing Children’s Assistance Actof 1984, the program provides funds for a variety ofactivities to support and coordinate a network of re-sources such as the National Center for Missing andExploited Children; training and technical assistanceto a network of 47 State clearinghouses, nonprofitorganizations, law enforcement personnel, and attor-neys; and research and demonstration programs.

Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) was established by the President and Con-gress through the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act of 1974, Public Law 93–415, asamended. Located within the Office of Justice Programs of the U.S. Department of Justice, OJJDP’s goal is toprovide national leadership in addressing the issues of juvenile delinquency and improving juvenile justice.

OJJDP sponsors a broad array of research, program, and training initiatives to improve the juvenile justicesystem as a whole, as well as to benefit individual youth-serving agencies. These initiatives are carried out byseven components within OJJDP, described below.

The mission of OJJDP is to provide national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent juvenile victimizationand respond appropriately to juvenile delinquency. This is accomplished through developing and implementing pre-vention programs and a juvenile justice system that protects the public safety, holds juvenile offenders accountable,and provides treatment and rehabilitative services based on the needs of each individual juvenile.

August 1999

Report

OJJDP Research: Making aDifference for Juveniles

Shay Bilchik, AdministratorOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of JusticePrograms, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, theNational Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

U.S. Department of JusticeOffice of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention810 Seventh Street NW.Washington, DC 20531

Janet RenoAttorney General

Raymond C. FisherAssociate Attorney General

Laurie RobinsonAssistant Attorney General

Shay BilchikAdministrator

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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Foreword

As a society that strives to raise productive, healthy, and safe children, how can we be certain that ourresponses to juvenile crime are effective? Do we know if our efforts at delinquency prevention and interven-tion are making real differences in the lives of youth and their families and in their communities? How can westrengthen and better target our delinquency and crime prevention strategies? Can we modify these strategiesas needed to respond to the ever-changing needs of our Nation’s youth?

These primary questions drive our work at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention(OJJDP). They also explain why we place such great value on research, evaluation, and statistics. To knowwhere our Nation’s juveniles are headed, we need to be fully informed about where they are and where theyhave been. Most important, we need to know if our current efforts are working to keep youth from becominginvolved in negative behavior. To achieve this goal, OJJDP’s Research and Program Development Division(Research Division) oversees a wide-ranging program of new research, comprehensive evaluations, and exact-ing statistical collection and analysis focusing on juvenile crime, delinquency, and victimization. Much of theinformation learned from these studies is summarized in Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report, whichdistills the most requested information about juvenile crime and victimization into a user-friendly format. ThisReport and its 1997 update are available by calling 800–638–8736. The 1999 National Report will be available infall 1999.

Juvenile criminal and delinquent behaviors do not emerge randomly. We have learned over the past fewdecades that a number of factors—individual, family, peer, and community—affect whether a child will engagein delinquent or criminal activity. Research has clearly shown that the more risk factors experienced by youth,the greater their likelihood of involvement in criminal activity. Conversely, protective factors (such as develop-ing close relationships with parents and teachers) can offset the negative effects of risk factors.

OJJDP Research: Making a Difference for Juveniles summarizes key initiatives undertaken by OJJDP’s ResearchDivision in research, evaluation, and statistics from 1996 through 1998 and presents the major findings ofthese initiatives. Readers may have encountered some of this information previously—for example, theresearch on serious and violent juvenile offenders received widespread attention from policymakers andpractitioners. However, this publication goes beyond simply reporting the facts. It puts the findings intocontext, highlighting their significance to policymakers, juvenile justice systems, schools, families, andjuveniles themselves. The Report includes:

◆ A review of Critical Findings, summarizing some of the most far-reaching and rigorous research ever con-ducted on the root causes of juvenile delinquency and negative behavior, including several longitudinal andmultisite studies.

◆ Highlights of some of OJJDP’s most innovative research efforts, including projects that focus oncommunitywide strategies and examine juveniles in confinement.

◆ Emerging Research in areas of special concern, including research on very young offenders, schoolviolence, and girls in the juvenile justice system.

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The work of the Research Division represents only part of the continuum of activity that occurs at OJJDP.Using what has been learned through our research, evaluation, and statistical efforts, other OJJDP divisionsare implementing model demonstration programs, replicating successful programs, providing comprehensiveand targeted training and technical assistance to States and local communities, and informing the public aboutthe extent and nature of juvenile crime and what works to prevent and stop it.

Unfortunately, negative youth behavior gets so much attention that we often fail to recognize that the vastmajority of juveniles, rather than headed down a path of crime and delinquency, are deeply and positivelyinvolved in their families, schools, and communities. They are focused on building the foundation of peacefuland productive lives.

Perhaps OJJDP’s greatest challenge is providing all youth with an opportunity to build such lives. I believethat knowledge is our strongest tool in meeting that challenge. I thank the many researchers, evaluators, andstatisticians involved in increasing our understanding of what will make a positive difference in the lives ofjuveniles, their families, and their communities.

Shay BilchikAdministratorOffice of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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Table of Contents

Foreword .............................................................................................................................................................. iii

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 1

Critical Findings ................................................................................................................................................... 5

Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders ....................................................................................................... 5

Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency ....................................................... 7

Research on Gangs .......................................................................................................................................... 9

National Statistics on Juvenile Offenders and Victims ............................................................................ 13

Highlights ............................................................................................................................................................. 17

Using Research To Address Community Needs and Support CommunitywideResponses to Juvenile Crime ....................................................................................................................... 17

Juvenile Violence Research Studies ............................................................................................................ 19

Juveniles in Detention and the Conditions of Confinement .................................................................... 20

Emerging Research .......................................................................................................................................... 23

Research on Very Young Offenders ............................................................................................................ 23

Juvenile Transfers to Adult Criminal Court .............................................................................................. 23

School Violence .............................................................................................................................................. 24

Comprehensive Gang Strategy Research ................................................................................................... 25

Research on Girls .......................................................................................................................................... 25

Research on American Indian Juveniles .................................................................................................... 26

Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 27

AppendixesAppendix A: 1998 Active Grants, Interagency and Intra-Agency Agreements, Contract, andPurchase Orders ..........................................................................................................................................A–1

Appendix B: OJJDP Publications and Products From the ResearchDivision 1994–Present ................................................................................................................................ B–1

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Introduction

The Office of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention (OJJDP), through its Research andProgram Development Division (hereinafter theResearch Division), translates research into action.The Research Division also strives to promotescience-based research, rigorous and informativeevaluations of demonstration programs, and mean-ingful statistics. The Research Division’s overallmission is to generate credible and useful informa-tion for improved decisionmaking to prevent andreduce juvenile delinquency and victimization.

This Report summarizes the Research Division’sachievements in three areas:

◆ Research. The Research Division sponsors em-pirical studies on an array of topics related tojuveniles and delinquency, from the roots of vio-lence to the impact of victimization. Studies rangefrom exploratory and descriptive to rigorouslyanalytical.

◆ Evaluation. One of the Research Division’simportant functions is to identify what works.Evaluations measure the impact of programs thatare geared to preventing or reducing juveniledelinquency and victimization. Many OJJDP-sponsored projects are community-basedinitiatives with multiple components that presentspecial challenges when measuring the impactof interventions and specific programs.

◆ Statistics. The Research Division sponsors theNation’s primary efforts in gathering data andstatistics on juveniles and crime, including studieson juvenile detention and corrections populations,probation caseloads, and court activities.

To identify solutions to juvenile crime and delin-quency, it is necessary to rely on what has been

learned. The Research Division collaborates with anumber of other Federal agencies to carry out re-search and evaluation efforts from which the find-ings will be useful to an interdisciplinary audience.The work produced through OJJDP research,evaluation, and statistics programs is used by:

◆ Researchers in the field.

◆ Practitioners on the front lines.

◆ Policymakers at the Federal, State, and local levels.

In addition, the Research Division works with otherOJJDP divisions to use research in enhancing train-ing efforts; improving program activities; informing

Collaboration With Other Federal Agencies

OJJDP collaborates with other Federal agencies tocofund and oversee research related to juveniles.This enables the Office to use its funds most effec-tively and to ensure that efforts are not duplicativeacross agencies. OJJDP is in high demand as a part-ner with other agencies; many of these partnershipsinvolve research and evaluation efforts. The Re-search Division is currently working on interagencyefforts with the Office of National Drug ControlPolicy, the U.S. Departments of Education, Com-merce (Bureau of the Census), Labor, and Healthand Human Services (Administration for Childrenand Families, National Institute of Mental Health,National Institute of Child Health and Human Devel-opment, and National Institute on Drug Abuse).Partners within the U.S. Department of Justice in-clude the National Institute of Justice, the Bureauof Justice Statistics, the Office for Victims of Crime,the Violence Against Women Office, the ExecutiveOffice for Weed and Seed, and the Office of Com-munity Oriented Policing Services.

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the public; and crafting effective interventions andformulating policies that have a positive impact onindividuals, families, and communities. One of themost successful examples of this continuum of activ-ity has been OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy forSerious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders.1

Programs that promote protective factors and helpreduce the risk factors that lead to juvenile crimeare some of the best investments a community canmake to lower its rate of delinquency. Evaluationand testing must be used to identify the strategiesthat work to keep juveniles from being arrestedand entering the juvenile justice system in the firstplace. At the same time, it is important to identifyeffective treatment and aftercare programs that willhelp reduce the likelihood of recidivism.

OJJDP has distilled what it haslearned from research, statistics,and program evaluations, incorpo-rating the principles and practicesinto the Comprehensive Strategyfor Serious, Violent, and ChronicJuvenile Offenders, which identifiesstrategic responses for addressingjuvenile crime at the community,city, State, and national levels.

The Comprehensive Strategy re-flects the continuum of activity inOJJDP’s research, demonstration,technical assistance, evaluation,and dissemination efforts. Throughinitial surveys and research on risk-focused prevention, OJJDP’s Re-search Division works with theSpecial Emphasis Division to de-velop community-based demon-stration programs that incorporatethe major elements of an effectivedelinquency prevention and con-trol program:

◆ Supporting the family aschildren’s first and primaryteacher.

◆ Enhancing the role of core insti-tutions (e.g., schools, busi-nesses, religious institutions) indeveloping capable, mature,and responsible youth.

◆ Recognizing that delinquencyprevention is the most cost-effective approach in combatingyouth crime.

◆ Intervening immediately andeffectively when delinquentbehavior first occurs.

◆ Establishing a system of gradu-ated sanctions that responds tothe needs of each juvenile of-fender while providing for com-munity safety.

◆ Targeting the small segment ofserious, violent, and chronicjuvenile offenders who commit adisproportionately high percent-age of violent juvenile crime;placing them in secure facilities ifnecessary; and providing inten-sive aftercare services.

The Research Division is evaluatingthe Comprehensive Strategy inseveral local communities, takingwhat is being learned to improveprograms. Together with OJJDP’sTraining and Technical AssistanceDivision, the Research Division isstructuring effective training andtechnical supports for communitiesimplementing the ComprehensiveStrategy. The Research Division also

works with the Information Dissemi-nation Unit to inform the field andlocal communities about the prin-ciples underlying the Comprehen-sive Strategy, implementationstrategies, and resources availablefor assistance.

The prevention component of theComprehensive Strategy calls forcoordinated efforts among thejuvenile justice system and otherservice systems to establish a sys-tem of support that encouragespositive youth development andprovides alternatives to delinquentbehavior. OJJDP’s Title V Program,Incentive Grants for Local Delin-quency Prevention Programs, em-bodies the key elements of whatresearch has shown to be effectivein prevention and provides criticalresources to communities to imple-ment a broad range of programsestablished in a local delinquencyprevention plan.

To receive copies of DelinquencyPrevention Works or OJJDP’s Guidefor Implementing the Comprehen-sive Strategy for Serious, Violent,and Chronic Juvenile Offenders, call800–638–8736 (Juvenile JusticeClearinghouse).

Developing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders

1. See Wilson, J.J., and Howell, J.C., 1993, Comprehensive Strategyfor serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders, Washington, DC:U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office ofJuvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

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An area in which OJJDP’s research has made sig-nificant contributions is identifying risk and protec-tive factors, that is, what puts a juvenile at risk forjuvenile delinquency and what protects juvenilesfrom becoming delinquent.

Decades of research have shown that the best pre-vention efforts are those that target risk and protec-tive factors in five areas: individual, community,family, peer group, and school.

◆ Risk factors increase the chances that a juvenilewill engage in behavior that can lead to delin-quency. Risk factors include availability of drugsor firearms in the community, family conflict, alack of commitment to school, and friends whoengage in problem behavior.

◆ Protective factors either reduce the risks orchange how a juvenile responds to these risksby enhancing positive behavior, health, and well-being. Protective factors include positive

individual characteristics (e.g., having a resilienttemperament); close relationships with family,teachers, and other supportive adults and peers;and beliefs and standards that promote schoolsuccess and rejection of drugs and crime.

The Research Division is committed to disseminatingresearch findings to inform the field and maximizeprogram success. OJJDP strategically sponsorsresearch that offers the greatest opportunities forunderstanding about preventing and interveningin juvenile delinquency and victimization and devel-oping effective programs.

Space constraints make it impossible to cover fullythe substantial number and scope of projects under-taken by the Research Division. Instead, this Reportprovides an overview of its efforts from 1996 to1998, highlighting some of the most critical findingsand emerging areas in which work has recentlybegun.

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OJJDP-sponsored research provides solid findingsin a number of critical areas that affect how theNation understands and responds to the problemof juvenile delinquency.

Serious and ViolentJuvenile OffendersSerious and violent juvenile (SVJ) offenders constitutea small, yet dangerous, population in the United States.Although their numbers tend to be small, these juve-niles account for a disproportionate amount of crime inthe Nation’s communities. Recognizing the need tobuild a solid research foundation to develop effectivepolicies and responses to this population, OJJDP as-sembled a study group of 22 distinguished researchersin 1995. The Study Group on Serious and Violent Ju-venile Offenders collaboratively examined the currentresearch on risk and protective factors, the develop-ment of SVJ offending careers, and effective preven-tion and intervention programs for these offenders.2

What Have We Learned?The Study Group found that most SVJ offenders aremale and usually display early minor behavior prob-lems that lead to more serious delinquent acts. Themajority of SVJ offenders tend to have multipleproblems such as substance abuse and mental healthdifficulties in addition to truancy, suspension, expul-sion, and dropping out of school. Further, SVJ of-fenders are disproportionately victims of violence.

◆ Actual delinquency careers of SVJ offenders arequite different from what is officially recorded.Although the average age of serious male offendersat their first contact with the juvenile justice systemwas 14.5 years, researchers found that the actualdelinquency careers of these offenders (based ontheir own statements and those of their mothers)started much earlier. Those who ended up in courtfor serious offenses at age 14.5 typically began tohave minor problems at age 7, progressed to mod-erately serious behavior problems at age 9.5, andcommitted serious delinquency offenses at age11.9. On average, more than 7 years elapsed be-tween the earliest minor problem behaviors andthe first court appearance for an offense.

◆ Many SVJ offenders are never arrested, andthe majority of violent juveniles have only oneofficially recorded violent crime as a juvenile.Juvenile courts do not routinely deal with offend-ers below the age of 12 because they are not de-tected or not referred to court. The potential SVJoffender is often not identified as such at his orher first appearance in court, in part because thefirst arrest is typically for a less serious offense.

◆ There are effective treatments for many delin-quent juveniles, both in the community and ininstitutional settings. The Study Group lookedat the circumstances and effectiveness of treatment

Critical Findings

Definition of Serious and Violent Offenses

Serious violent offenses include homicide, rape,robbery, aggravated assault, and kidnaping.

Serious nonviolent offenses include burglary,motor vehicle theft, theft of more than $100,arson, drug trafficking, and extortion.

2. The full findings of the Study Group’s research can be foundin Loeber and Farrington’s 1998 publication, Serious & ViolentJuvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Successful Interventions; theStudy Group Report on which this publication is based is avail-able from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (Loeber andFarrington, 1997). See the selective bibliography on page 7 formore information on both publications.

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for two groups of serious juvenile offenders: thosein noncustodial programs in the community (e.g.,parole, probation) and those placed in custodialprograms. The most successful programs for juve-niles in the community were those that focused onenhancing interpersonal skills, provided individualcounseling, and encouraged a commitment tochanging behavior. Interpersonal skills trainingwas also a focal point of the most effective pro-grams in institutional settings. Other effective insti-tutional models were small, family-style grouphomes administered by “teaching parents” whodeveloped positive relationships with the juveniles,monitored their progress in school, and providedindividual counseling and support as needed.

What Does This Mean?◆ Focusing on early intervention with children

who may be at risk for delinquent behavior iscrucial. Researchers learned that opportunitiesfor early intervention are often missed. By the

Members of the Study Group on SVJ Offenders

Chairs:David P. Farrington, Ph.D., University of Cambridge, England

Rolf Loeber, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Members:David Altschuler, Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Alfred Blumstein, Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

Richard F. Catalano, Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Julius Debro, Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Peter Greenwood, Ph.D., The RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA

Nancy G. Guerra, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago

Darnell F. Hawkins, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago

J. David Hawkins, Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle, WA

James C. Howell, Ph.D., Institute for Intergovernmental Research, Tallahassee, FL

David Huizinga, Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Barry A. Krisberg, Ph.D., National Council on Crime and Delinquency, San Francisco, CA

John H. Laub, Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park, MD

Marc Le Blanc, Ph.D., University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Mark W. Lipsey, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Walter Miller, Ph.D., Cambridge, MA

Mark Moore, Ph.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Howard N. Snyder, Ph.D., The National Center for Juvenile Justice, Pittsburgh, PA

Terence P. Thornberry, Ph.D., University at Albany, State University of New York

Patrick Tolan, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago

Gail A. Wasserman, Ph.D., Columbia University, New York, NY

time SVJ offenders come to the attention of thejuvenile justice system, they may have spent sev-eral years committing minor offenses and devel-oping serious behavior problems. This findingreinforces the importance of early intervention;it is never too early to intervene.

◆ Comprehensive community interventionefforts are most effective. Researchers alsolearned that the most effective early interventionefforts are those that address multiple problemsand occur simultaneously in the home and atschool. Community-based intervention, whichuses a coordinated response from the juvenilejustice and mental health systems, schools, andchild welfare agencies, is needed to identify SVJoffenders and address the overall problem ofviolence in society.

◆ Providing multiple services based on indi-vidual offender needs also promotes positiveeffects. The researchers learned that there are

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effective treatments for SVJ offenders. Whenconsidering appropriate treatment and alterna-tive sanctions, it is important to take into ac-count the severity of the presenting offense, therisk of recidivism for serious offenses, and theindividual needs of the juvenile offender. Themost effective treatments (both custodial andnoncustodial) incorporate interpersonal skillstraining and cognitive-behavioral programs.

Selective Bibliography on Seriousand Violent Juvenile OffendersLoeber, R., and Farrington, D.P., eds. 1997. NeverToo Early, Never Too Late: Risk Factors and SuccessfulInterventions for Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders.Final Report of the Study Group on Serious andViolent Juvenile Offenders (grant number 95–JD–FX–0018). Washington, DC: U.S. Department ofJustice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Ju-venile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Avail-able from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse,800–638–8736.

Loeber, R., and Farrington, D.P., eds. 1998. Serious& Violent Juvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and SuccessfulInterventions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publica-tions, Inc.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Pre-vention. 1998. Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders.Bulletin. Washington, DC: U.S. Department ofJustice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Ju-venile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Toorder, call the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at800–638–8736.

Program of Research on theCauses and Correlates ofDelinquencySince 1986, OJJDP has sponsored three longitudi-nal studies—collectively referred to as the Programof Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delin-quency—to improve understanding of serious delin-quency, violence, and drug use by examining howindividual juveniles develop within the context offamily, school, peers, and community. Samples ofinner-city youth were selected in three cities: Den-ver, CO; Pittsburgh, PA; and Rochester, NY. Thestudies involve repeated contacts with the same ju-veniles, including face-to-face private interviewsevery 6 to 12 months for a substantial portion oftheir developmental years. On average, 90 percentof the juveniles in the sample population have beenretained in the studies.

OJJDP held three policy forums in 1998 to providean opportunity for policymakers and practitionersto learn about the Study Group’s findings and dis-cuss the implications of this research for State andlocal policies and programs. Policy forums wereheld in three cities: Chicago, IL; Sacramento, CA;and Washington, DC. In addition, OJJDP provided afourth satellite forum that was broadcast to more

than 700 downlink sites. The audiences for theseforums included researchers, law enforcement per-sonnel, juvenile justice agency directors and per-sonnel, direct service workers, State and localgovernment officials, judges, attorneys, legislators,and the media. It is estimated that more than15,000 individuals attended or viewed thepolicy forums.

Making Research More Policy Relevant: Policy Forums on the Serious and Violent Juvenile

The Causes and Correlates Studies

◆ A Longitudinal Multi-Disciplinary Study ofDevelopmental Patterns (Denver Youth Survey),directed by Dr. David Huizinga at the Universityof Colorado.

◆ Progressions in Antisocial and Delinquent ChildBehavior (Pittsburgh Youth Study), directed byDr. Rolf Loeber at the University of Pittsburgh.

◆ A Panel Study of a Reciprocal Causal Model ofDelinquency (Rochester Youth DevelopmentStudy), directed by Dr. Terence P. Thornberry atThe Research Foundation, University at Albany,State University of New York.

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Researchers at all three sites use the same coremeasures to look at the following:

◆ Delinquent behavior.◆ Drug use.◆ Juvenile justice system involvement.◆ Community characteristics.◆ Family experiences.◆ Peer relationships.◆ Educational experiences.◆ Attitudes and values.◆ Demographic characteristics.

What Have We Learned?Many findings of the Causes and Correlates studiesreinforce earlier knowledge and beliefs about theroots of delinquency and violence. Knowledge isalso being advanced in many important directions.

◆ Childhood maltreatment is associated withlater behavior problems. A history of child-hood maltreatment is associated with an in-creased risk of at least 25 percent for engagingin a host of adolescent problem behaviors. Theseinclude serious and violent delinquency, druguse, poor school performance, mental illness,and teenage pregnancy. In addition, a historyof maltreatment nearly doubles the risk thatteenagers will experience multiple problemsduring adolescence.

◆ Less serious problem behaviors precede moreserious delinquency. The development of disrup-tive and delinquent behavior in boys generallyprogresses in an orderly fashion. Researchersidentified three distinct developmental pathways:authority conflict (e.g., defiance and runningaway); covert actions (e.g., lying and stealing);and overt actions (e.g., aggressive and violentbehavior). Individuals may proceed along singleor multiple developmental pathways toward seri-ous antisocial behavior.

◆ Serious delinquents have many co-occurringproblems. Serious delinquents are likely to beinvolved in drug use, precocious sexual activity,school failure, juvenile gangs, unsupervised gunownership, and related behaviors.

◆ Very young children are involved in serious vio-lent behavior. Delinquency, drug use, and otherproblem behaviors begin at earlier ages than previ-ously thought. A small, but substantial percentageof boys and girls is involved in serious violenceeven before becoming teenagers. At age 12, 19percent of the boys and 15 percent of the girls inDenver reported involvement in these activities. InPittsburgh, 7 percent of the 10-year-olds reportedinvolvement in serious violent behavior.

◆ Violence among girls has increased. In general,a greater percentage of boys is involved in seriousviolence than girls. However, the rate of violenceamong girls appears to be growing. In Denver,researchers found that the prevalence of seriousviolence among girls ages 13 to 15 is more thanhalf that of boys. In Rochester, more girls (18percent) reported committing serious violence atage 13 than boys (16 percent).

What Does This Mean?◆ Early warning signs of disruptive behaviors

must not be dismissed. Rather than assumingthat these behaviors will pass, teachers, parents,and mental health practitioners need to recognizethat disruptive behavior should be taken seri-ously. Interventions will be more successful if thechild has not already begun moving along path-ways toward more serious delinquent activity.

◆ Children who are victims of maltreatment mustbe identified early and receive treatment. Thesestudies reinforce what has already been knownfrom previous studies—that children who arevictims of abuse and/or neglect are more likely tohave problems when they become older, includinginvolvement in violent delinquency.

◆ Parents, schools, mental health practitioners,and the juvenile justice community need to worktogether to comprehensively screen and treatchildren at risk of developing serious disruptivebehaviors. Teachers and parents must communi-cate regularly regarding problems the child is ex-periencing. Schools need to use mental healthpractitioners and coordinate with the juvenile jus-tice system to ensure that disruptive children re-ceive intervention as early as possible. A critical

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link in service is needed (but often is lacking) be-tween the fields of mental health and juvenile jus-tice. Recognizing this need, OJJDP initiated theMental Health/Juvenile Justice Initiative in 1997to support several projects that enhance collabora-tion between the mental health and juvenile justicesystems. Through this initiative, OJJDP is sup-porting the work of several other Federal agenciesinvolved in enhancing mental health research andservices to at-risk youth, particularly those in thejuvenile justice system. Specific projects include:

Providing funds to the Center for MentalHealth Services (CMHS), U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services, to support techni-cal assistance for existing CMHS sites. Thissupport is designed to strengthen the sites’capacity to provide mental health services foryouth in the juvenile justice system and to in-clude these youth in the continuum of carebeing created in the sites.

Supporting the development of Guidelines forPsychiatric Systems of Care for Adolescents in theJuvenile Justice System, which is being preparedby the American Academy of Child Psychiatry.This publication will include early identifica-tion protocols and models of diversion and willdocument the best principles for systems ofcare for youth with serious emotional distur-bances who are involved in the juvenile justicesystem.

Joining the National Institute of Corrections toprovide technical assistance to a program fordually diagnosed juvenile offenders.

Working with the National Institute of MentalHealth to support the expansion of the Multi-Site, Multimodal Treatment Study of Childrenwith Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.The expansion is enabling researchers to iden-tify the contact that research participants havehad with the juvenile justice system.

Selective Bibliography on the Programof Research on the Causes and Correlatesof DelinquencyKelley, B.T., Huizinga, D., Thornberry, T.P., andLoeber, R. 1997. Epidemiology of Serious Violence.

Bulletin. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Jus-tice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of JuvenileJustice and Delinquency Prevention.

Kelley, B.T., Loeber, R., Keenan, K., and DeLamatre,M. 1997. Developmental Pathways in Boys’ Disruptiveand Delinquent Behavior. Bulletin. Washington, DC:U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Pro-grams, Office of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention.

Kelley, B.T., Thornberry, T.P., and Smith, C.A.1997. In the Wake of Childhood Maltreatment. Bulletin.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Of-fice of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention.

Thornberry, T.P., and Burch, J.H., II. 1997. GangMembers and Delinquent Behavior. Bulletin. Washing-ton, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Jus-tice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice andDelinquency Prevention.

Research on GangsThe Research Division directly supports OJJDP’sstrong emphasis on gang prevention, intervention,and suppression. To design programs that preventjuveniles from becoming involved in gang activity, itis necessary to understand how and why juvenilegangs form. OJJDP s research also tracks theprevalence of juvenile gang activity in the country,the ways in which gangs emerge, and the communityfactors that work to reduce and eliminate gangs.Research and evaluation in this area have been ofgreat national interest.

The Research Division sponsors a broad-basedresearch program on specific types of gangs (e.g.,American Indian, Asian-American), gangs in certainsettings (e.g., schools, detention centers), and riskfactors for gang membership. The diversity of thisresearch is outlined below.

◆ Gang Membership and Affiliation in Seriousand Violent Delinquency (University at Albany,State University of New York (SUNY)). Usingthe sample of juveniles from the Rochester YouthDevelopment Study, researchers are seeking tolearn more about whether gang membership itself

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contributes to delinquent behavior by comparingmembers with youth not involved with gangs.What proportion of offenses are attributable togang members? How do gang members differ fromother youth who are involved in law-violatingyouth groups? In what ways do gangs facilitatedelinquent behavior? The study is examining bothrisk and protective factors associated with gangmembership.

◆ Developmental Dynamics of Gang Membershipand Delinquency (University of Washington,WA). Analyzing longitudinal research data onyouth from ages 10 to 18, researchers are identi-fying risk and protective factors for gang mem-bership and criminal activity. This study is alsolooking at the causes and impacts of early ganginitiation, predictors of sustained versus short-term gang membership, and the impact of crimi-nal justice involvement on gang members.

◆ Youth Gangs in Juvenile Detention and Cor-rection Facilities (National Juvenile DetentionAssociation, KY). This research assesses the na-ture and extent of youth gang problems in juve-nile confinement facilities in order to improvejuvenile justice system management and rehabili-tation of gang-involved youth. The study includesa national survey, development of risk-needsassessment instruments, and development ofmodel youth gang program concepts for juvenileconfinement facilities. Plans include implementa-tion and testing of the model in selected jurisdic-tions in the future.

◆ Socialization to Gangs in an Emerging GangCity (Department of Criminology and CriminalJustice, University of Missouri at St. Louis,MO). Jointly sponsored by the National Insti-tute of Justice and OJJDP, this program is areplication of the methodology used at the Uni-versity of Chicago. Researchers are comparingthe general applicability of measures of youthgang involvement in a chronic gang city to ganginvolvement in an emerging gang city. They arecollecting baseline data on at-risk youth in acity with an emerging gang problem and alsoidentifying key risk factors for gang involve-ment and delinquency.

◆ Delinquency and Criminal Street GangAffiliation Among Southeast Asian Youth(Westminster Police Department, CA). Research-ers are examining the relationship between juve-nile delinquency and gang and nongang groupaffiliation of Southeast Asian refugee youth. Theproject includes a series of qualitative focusgroups of experts in Southeast Asian culture andexperts in gang behavior to examine the social,historical, and environmental roots of criminalbehavior in the context of this community. Lawenforcement data and interviews with both delin-quent and nondelinquent youth are also a part ofthe study. Findings are essential to develop effec-tive community-based intervention strategies toreduce juvenile delinquency among SoutheastAsian youth.

◆ Finding and Knowing the Gang Naye’e in theNavajo Nation (Navajo Nation Judicial Branch,AZ). This is the first comprehensive assessmentof gang activity by a tribal government. Research-ers are using a mixed research design of quantita-tive and qualitative assessment and have includedclose community involvement at all stages. Jus-tice agency data and followup surveys were ini-tially reviewed to assess the gang problem.Community members are actively involved inassisting researchers to understand the nature,extent, and causes of Navajo Nation gang vio-lence. A goal of the project is to discover ap-proaches to dealing with gangs that can beadapted by other Indian nations.

◆ The National Youth Gang Center (FL). The cen-ter managed by the Research Division, collectsdata (including the annual National Youth GangSurvey), analyzes State legislation related to gangs,conducts gang literature reviews, identifies promis-ing gang program strategies, and provides pro-grammatic support to a National Youth GangConsortium (the consortium). The consortiumcomprises all Federal agency programs and en-forcement offices engaged in antigang activities.Convened quarterly, its goal is to build partner-ships and coordinate Federal resources at the locallevel as part of a comprehensive Federal gang pre-vention, suppression, and intervention initiative.Consortium objectives include coordination of

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research and program development, data collec-tion, information exchange and service delivery,and increased public awareness of and approachesto dealing with gangs and their victims.

The National Youth Gang Survey (Institute forIntergovernmental Research, FL), conducted an-nually since 1995, gathers basic data from policeand sheriff’s departments across the Nation regard-ing the number of youth gangs and the number ofyouth gang members in local jurisdictions. Forsurvey purposes, a youth gang is defined as “agroup of youths in (the respondent’s) jurisdictionthat (the respondent) or other responsible personsin (the respondent’s) agency are willing to identifyor classify as a ‘gang.’ ” The survey does not in-clude motorcycle gangs, hate or ideology groups,prison gangs, or exclusively adult gangs.

What Have We Learned?The Research Division’s gang-related researchprojects have produced a number of important find-ings for juvenile justice, law enforcement, schools,and community-based service providers.

◆ The juvenile gang problem affects communitiesof all sizes and in all regions of the UnitedStates. Of the more than 2,700 law enforcementagencies responding to the 1997 National YouthGang Survey, 51 percent reported that gangs wereactive in their jurisdictions. This is a slight decrease(–2 percent) from 1996. Gang activity is mostprevalent in jurisdictions in the West (74 percent).While there was an overall decline in gang preva-lence and membership in 1997, the number of gangmembers rose in small cities and rural counties.

◆ Risk factors for gang membership have beenidentified. Research has identified risk factors forjuvenile gang membership at a variety of levels:community, family, school, peer group, and indi-vidual. Presented in Youth Gangs: An Overview byJames C. Howell (see the selective bibliographyon page 12), these risk factors range from neigh-borhood drug availability to a lack of parentalrole models and academic failure.

◆ Most juvenile gang problems are homegrown.Gang member migration is widespread, but is not

the main reason for the nationwide proliferation ofgangs. Very few cities with emerging or chronicgang problems reported that their problem was dueto migration. In fact, it appears that motivation formigration generally tends to be for social rather thancriminal purposes. For example, 39 percent of gangmembers report that they moved with their families.

◆ Gang members account for a disproportionatenumber of delinquent acts. The studies con-ducted by the University of Washington andUniversity at Albany, SUNY, found that gangmembers accounted for two to three times asmany acts of delinquency as expected, giventheir share in the population. The University ofWashington study found that gang members(15 percent of the sample) reported committing58 percent of the delinquent acts overall andmore than half of the minor assaults, minorthefts, drug trafficking, and property crimes.The University at Albany, SUNY, study foundthat 30 percent of the sample were gang mem-bers, who accounted for 65 percent of thereported delinquent acts overall.

◆ Gang members account for a greater numberof more serious crimes. Gang members commitserious and violent offenses at a rate several timeshigher than nongang adolescents. The Universityof Washington study found that juveniles in gangsreported committing violent offenses (assault, fight-ing, and robbery) five times as often as nongangjuveniles. The University at Albany, SUNY, studyfound gang members committed three times asmany serious and violent offenses as nongang juve-niles. Studies also showed that the influence of thegang on levels of juvenile violence is greater than theinfluence of other highly delinquent peers.

◆ Substance abuse, drug trafficking, and gangmembership appear to be related. The Universityat Albany, SUNY, study found that the 30 percentwho reported being gang members accounted for70 percent of the drug sales. In addition, they re-ported 63 percent of the instances of alcohol useand 61 percent of the instances of other drug use inthis sample. In Washington, researchers also foundthat drug use and trafficking rates remained nearlyas high after members left the gang as when theywere active in it.

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What Does This Mean?◆ Gang activity is no longer just a big city prob-

lem. Communities in rural areas need to be awareof indicators of gang activity and seriously assesstheir own gang problems. OJJDP is respondingto this issue with the Rural Gang Initiative. Fourrural sites have been selected to conduct a 1-yearassessment of their gang problem and to developa local strategy for application of OJJDP’s Com-prehensive Community-Wide Approach to GangPrevention, Intervention, and Suppression (seepage 25). The Research Division is funding a na-tional evaluator to conduct case studies and assistwith evaluation planning.

◆ More programs must be established to reducecrime and target gangs and gang members. Effortsto reduce the overall level of crime in society will notwork unless those efforts include effective gangprevention, intervention, and suppression programs.

◆ Communities need to take a localized, yet com-prehensive approach in assessing their gang prob-lem and developing strategies and solutions.Every community has factors that make the youthgang problem unique to that jurisdiction. Learningabout these factors requires involvement by all ele-ments of the community. The ComprehensiveCommunity-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention,Intervention, and Suppression emphasizes five strat-egies that communities should focus on to addressgang activity and membership: community mobiliza-tion, social intervention, opportunities provision,suppression, and organizational change and devel-opment. These five strategies, and the current evalu-ation being conducted in five cities, are detailed onpage 25. Part of this comprehensive approach isunderstanding that “homegrown” risk factors aremore likely sources of gang formation or expansionthan is gang migration. Communities need to look attheir local situation to understand the nature of thegang problem.

Selective Bibliography of OJJDP’sResearch on GangsBattin-Pearson, S.R., Thornberry, T.P., Hawkins,J.D., and Krohn, M.D. 1998. Gang Membership,Delinquent Peers, and Delinquent Behavior. Bulletin.

Youth Gang Series

Critical information on gangs is available to thepublic through OJJDP’s Youth Gang Series ofBulletins. To receive copies of past issues or re-quest future issues, contact the Juvenile JusticeClearinghouse at 800–638–8736.

◆ Youth Gangs: An Overview, by James C. Howell(August 1998).

◆ Gang Members on the Move, by Cheryl L.Maxson (October 1998).

◆ Gang Membership, Delinquent Peers, and Delin-quent Behavior, by Sara R. Battin-Pearson,Terence P. Thornberry, J. David Hawkins, andMarvin D. Krohn (October 1998).

◆ The Youth Gangs, Drugs, and Violence Connec-tion, by James C. Howell and Scott H. Decker(January 1999).

Other gang-related OJJDP publications include:

◆ Highlights of the 1997 National Youth GangSurvey, by John P. Moore and Craig P. Terrett(March 1999).

◆ Youth Gang Programs and Strategies (in press).

◆ 1996 National Youth Gang Survey (July 1999).

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Of-fice of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention.

Howell, J.C. 1998. Youth Gangs: An Overview. Bulle-tin. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Jus-tice and Delinquency Prevention.

Howell, J.C., and Decker, S.H. 1999. The YouthGangs, Drugs, and Violence Connection. Bulletin. Wash-ington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office ofJustice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice andDelinquency Prevention.

Maxson, C.L. 1998. Gang Members on the Move. Bulle-tin. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Jus-tice and Delinquency Prevention.

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Moore, J.P., and Terrett, C.P. 1999. Highlights of the1997 National Youth Gang Survey. Fact Sheet #97.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,Office of Justice Programs, Office of JuvenileJustice and Delinquency Prevention.

Thornberry, T.P., and Burch, J.H., II. 1997. GangMembers and Delinquent Behavior. Bulletin. Washing-ton, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office ofJustice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice andDelinquency Prevention.

National Statistics on JuvenileOffenders and VictimsOJJDP’s Research Division monitors trends re-garding juvenile victims and offenders, includingself-reported offending and official statistics on juve-nile offenses, juvenile arrests, juvenile offenders, andjuvenile victims. Working with other branches of theU.S. Department of Justice (e.g., Bureau of JusticeStatistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation) andother government agencies (e.g., Bureau of the Cen-sus, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,Bureau of Labor Statistics), the Research Divisiongathers information that offers the most completelook at the nature and extent of juvenile delinquencyand victimization in the United States. The Re-search Division also produces Juvenile Offenders andVictims: A National Report, which distills the mostrequested information about juvenile crime and vic-timization into a user-friendly format. This Reportand its 1997 update are available by calling 800–638–8736. The 1999 National Report will be available in fall1999. To help gather and manage this information,the Research Division supports the following:

◆ The National Juvenile Court Data Archive. Thearchive collects, stores, and analyzes data aboutyouth referred to U.S. courts for delinquency andstatus offenses. OJJDP Fact Sheets and Bulle-tins about these data inform the field on a regularbasis of trends and their implications for the juve-nile justice system.

◆ Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement(CJRP). Conducted for the first time in fall 1997,CJRP collects detailed information on youth injuvenile residential placement facilities as a result

of contact with the juvenile justice system. Ex-amples of the type of information CJRP collectsinclude characteristics of juveniles in the facilities(date of birth, race, sex, and most serious of-fense), court of jurisdiction (juvenile or criminalcourt), adjudicatory status (preadjudication orpostadjudication), and the State or county thathas jurisdiction over the juvenile. OJJDP andthe Bureau of the Census developed CJRP tomore accurately represent the number of juvenilesin placement and to describe the reasons for theirplacement. The new census is expected to resultin more accurate, timely, and useful data on thejuvenile population, with less reporting burdenfor facility respondents.

Projects currently in development include:

◆ The Survey of Youth in Residential Placement.This survey will examine the characteristics ofjuveniles placed out of the home because of con-tact with the justice system, including their demo-graphic makeup and offense history. It will alsoexamine risk and protective factors encounteredby these individuals and their experiences in cus-tody. OJJDP anticipates a 2-year developmentphase with the first full implementation of thesurvey in 2001. This will be the first time thatresearchers will collect individual-level data di-rectly from a national sample of juveniles in place-ment.

◆ The Juvenile Residential Facility Census.OJJDP is creating a census of juvenile facilitiesthat will provide important information on howthese facilities function. Although still in develop-ment, the census is expected to cover securityarrangements, health services, mental healthtreatment, substance abuse treatment, educationopportunities and resources, and facility capacity.The Bureau of the Census initiated a feasibilitytest of this project in October 1998. The first fullimplementation will take place in October 2000.

◆ The Juvenile Probation Survey. OJJDP isdeveloping a survey of juvenile probation that willcomplement the various censuses that deal withjuvenile custody. Juvenile probation has rightlybeen described as the workhorse of the juvenilejustice system. However, few data exist on the use

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of this sanction, and no data exist on the numberof juveniles under probation at any one time. Thisnew survey will fill that gap. OJJDP has enteredinto an agreement with the Bureau of the Censusto develop the survey, which will be field testedin 2001.

What Have We Learned?Some recent findings from the statistical activitiesdescribed above offer a snapshot of juvenile crimeand delinquency in the United States.

◆ More than 2.8 million juvenile arrests weremade for all types of offenses in 1997. Althoughthis is a slight decrease from 1996 (–1 percent),this number is still an increase of 14 percent since1993 and 35 percent since 1988. Juveniles wereinvolved in 17 percent of all Violent Crime Indexarrests and 35 percent of Property Crime Indexarrests in 1997.

◆ Juvenile violent crime is decreasing. After con-sistently increasing from 1985 to 1994, juvenileviolent crime arrest rates (the number of juvenilearrests per 100,000 persons ages 10 to 17 in thepopulation) declined 23 percent from 1994 to1997. The decline between 1996 and 1997 was 13percent.

◆ Among all violent crimes, the juvenile arrestrate for murder has shown both the greatestincrease and the greatest decline during theperiod of 1988 to 1997. After more than dou-bling between 1987 and 1993, the juvenile arrestrate for murder dropped substantially (40 per-cent) between 1993 and 1997. Between 1996 and1997 alone, it dropped 16 percent.

◆ All growth in homicide offending between 1987and 1994 was firearm related, as were the de-clines in 1995 and 1996. Between 1987 and 1994,the number of juvenile homicide offenses involvinga firearm grew nearly 200 percent. In contrast, thenumber of homicide offenses involving otherweapon types increased 10 percent. After morethan a decade of increases, juvenile homicide of-fenses dropped substantially (30 percent) between1994 and 1996. Nearly all of this decline occurredin homicides committed with firearms.

◆ In 1996, courts with juvenile jurisdiction dis-posed more than 1.8 million delinquency cases.This is a 3-percent increase from 1995 and a49-percent increase from 1987. In 1996, themajority of cases (86 percent) handled in juve-nile court were referred by law enforcement.

◆ Younger juveniles account for a substantialproportion of juvenile arrests and the juvenilecourt caseload. About one-third of juveniles ar-rested in 1997 were under the age of 15. The pro-portion of juvenile arrests involving youngerjuveniles (under age 15) was highest for arson(67 percent), followed by sex offenses (51 per-cent), vandalism (45 percent), and larceny-theft(42 percent). Of all delinquency cases processedby the Nation’s juvenile courts in 1996, 59 per-cent involved juveniles younger than 16.

◆ Female delinquency has grown substantially. In1997, 26 percent of juveniles arrested were girls.Between 1993 and 1997, arrests of juvenile femalesincreased more than male arrests in most offensecategories. The number of juvenile court delin-quency cases involving females increased 76 per-cent between 1987 and 1996; cases involving malesincreased 42 percent during the same period.

◆ The number of juveniles in public facilities hassharply increased since the early 1980’s. The 1-day count of juveniles held in public facilities rose47 percent between 1983 and 1995. During thistime, the number of juveniles held for violentoffenses doubled, as did the number of juvenilesfor person offenses. Preliminary data from the1997 CJRP, which replaced the old Children inCustody series, counted 105,790 juvenile offend-ers in public and private facilities.

◆ Crowding is a serious problem in juvenile facili-ties. A study of the conditions of confinement be-tween 1987 and 1991 in U.S. juvenile detention andcorrectional facilities found that institutional crowd-ing was pervasive. More than 75 percent of juve-niles were housed in facilities that violated one ormore standards related to living space. The studyalso found that crowding was associated with higherrates of institutional violence, suicidal behavior, andgreater reliance on the use of short-term isolation.

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◆ Minority juveniles are greatly overrepre-sented in the custody population. Of juvenilesheld in juvenile residential facilities in 1997, 37percent were white, non-Hispanic, and 63 per-cent were from minority groups. This is quitedifferent from the court population, in whichwhites accounted for 64 percent of delinquencyreferrals. The 1997 CJRP reported a similarbreakdown in population: 37 percent white, 40percent African-American, 19 percent Hispanic,and the remainder American Indian, Asian-American, or Pacific Islanders.

What Does This Mean?◆ Even with the recent declines, juvenile crime

is still too high. Despite the decreases in recentyears, the juvenile arrest rate in 1997 was still35 percent higher than in 1988. The arrest ratefor juvenile violent crime was 49 percent higherin 1997 than in 1988. Juvenile crime and delin-quency continue to be serious problems in theUnited States.

◆ Special focus must be placed on young and femaleoffenders. These two groups are accounting for agreater proportion of the delinquency populationthan ever before. The unique factors that contributeto their increased involvement in crime need to beexamined, and effective interventions need to beput in place and tested.

◆ Although prior research has found that over-crowding and disproportionate minorityconfinement are serious issues, much is stillunknown. To understand where to focus re-sources, it is important to learn about the char-acteristics and needs of juveniles in custody. Todate, most information gathered about juvenilesin residential facilities is gathered from the fa-cilities themselves. OJJDP’s Survey of Youthin Residential Placement will gather individual-level data from juveniles themselves. In addi-tion, the Juvenile Residential Facility Censuswill gather information about programs andservices offered by residential facilities aroundthe country.

Selective Bibliography of NationalStatistics on Juvenile Offendersand VictimsEasy Access to FBI Arrest Statistics 1991–1995.3

Easy Access to the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report1980–1996.

Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics 1987–1996.

Gallagher, C.A. 1999. Juvenile Offenders in ResidentialPlacement, 1997. Fact Sheet. Washington, DC: U.S.Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,Office of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention.

Hsia, H.M., and Hamparian, D. 1998. Disproportion-ate Minority Confinement: 1997 Update. Bulletin. Wash-ington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office ofJustice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice andDelinquency Prevention.

Moone, J. 1998. Counting What Counts: The Census ofJuveniles in Residential Placement. Fact Sheet #74.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Of-fice of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention.

National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ).1999. OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. (Available atwww.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb.)

Puzzanchera, C.M. 1998. The Youngest Offenders, 1996.Fact Sheet #87. Washington, DC: U.S. Departmentof Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office ofJuvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Sickmund, M., Snyder, H.N., and Poe-Yamagata,E. 1997. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1997 Update onViolence. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Jus-tice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of JuvenileJustice and Delinquency Prevention.

Snyder, H.N. 1998. Juvenile Arrests 1997. Bulletin.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Of-fice of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention.

3. Easy Access is a family of software packages developed forOJJDP by the National Center for Juvenile Justice. Thepackages can be downloaded from OJJDP’s Web site atwww.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/facts/ezaccess.html.

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Stahl, A.L. 1999. Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Courts,1996. Fact Sheet #109. Washington, DC: U.S. De-partment of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,Office of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention.

Stahl, A.L. 1998. Juvenile Vandalism, 1996. Fact Sheet#85. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Jus-tice and Delinquency Prevention.

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Using Research To AddressCommunity Needs and SupportCommunitywide Responses toJuvenile CrimeThe major approach underlying most of OJJDP’sprograms is a combination of community mobiliza-tion and community-based strategic planning.Community-based programs present unique chal-lenges in conducting research and evaluation. Trackingthe flexible and evolving nature of an intervention asit is implemented can be extremely difficult, as istracking a program’s impact at all levels: individual,family, and community. In addition, many commu-nity-based projects lack an available comparison orcontrol group, making an experimental design im-possible. A rigorous evaluation, however, can pro-vide important information. Learning about theseprograms is critical for identifying what works. TheResearch Division is promoting an array of researchand evaluation in this area, thereby contributing tothe base of knowledge available to communitiesthroughout the country.4 Projects include:

◆ National Evaluation of SafeFutures: PartnershipsTo Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency.SafeFutures projects are geared to using a combinedapproach of prevention, intervention, treatment, andsanctions to reduce youth violence and delinquency.The evaluation is documenting the process of imple-mentation and the impact of these partnerships onyouth violence in the targeted communities: Boston,MA; Contra Costa County, CA; Fort BelknapIndian Community, MT; Imperial County, CA;Seattle, WA; and St. Louis, MO.

◆ Youth-Focused Community Policing Initiative.A joint project of OJJDP, the U.S. Departmentof Justice’s Community Relations Services, andthe Office of Community Oriented Policing Ser-vices, the Youth-Focused Community Policing(YFCP) initiative is designed to assist local ju-risdictions in establishing partnerships and dia-log between youth, police, the community, andother local government agencies. YFCP providescommunities with the training and technicalassistance needed to develop a self-assessmentinstrument and planning methodology. The ini-tiative will also assist communities in implement-ing, maintaining, and evaluating delinquencyprevention and control strategies. Eight commu-nities received funding to implement YFCP pro-grams: Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX;Kansas City, KS; Los Angeles, CA; MoundBayou, MS; Oakland, CA; and Rio Grande, TX.

◆ Evaluation of the Intensive Community-BasedAftercare Demonstration and Technical Assis-tance Program. This project is testing a model thatprovides for smooth and effective transitioning ofjuveniles from secure confinement back into thecommunity. The model has three components:(1) prerelease and preparatory planning while theyouth is still incarcerated, (2) structured transi-tion with involvement of both the institution andaftercare staff, and (3) long-term reintegrativeservices after release. The projects being evalu-ated are located in Denver, CO; Las Vegas, NV;and Norfolk, VA.

◆ Evaluation of Partnerships To Reduce JuvenileGun Violence. The “Gun Partnership” program isassisting four communities in reducing juveniles’illegal access to guns and addressing why juve-niles carry and use guns for violence. Focusing on

Highlights

4. Information on the grantees conducting evaluations is found inappendix A.

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both individual and community factors, the evalu-ation will document the process of communitymobilization, planning, and collaboration neededto develop a comprehensive approach to reducinggun violence involving juveniles in four sites: Ba-ton Rouge, LA; Oakland, CA; Shreveport, LA;and Syracuse, NY.5

◆ Evaluation of the Drug-Free Communities Sup-port Program. This project consists of a processand an outcome evaluation of community-basedcollaborative substance abuse prevention projectsthat include initiatives that target illegal drugs,alcohol, and/or tobacco use by juveniles andimplement comprehensive long-term plans toreduce substance abuse. The process evaluationwill look at program implementation in more than90 sites, with a more indepth look at 12 sites tomeasure the impact and outcome of programactivities.

◆ Evaluation of the Combating Underage Drink-ing Program. This evaluation is examining howStates and local communities are using funds fromthe Combating Underage Drinking Program, amodel program designed to curb underage drink-ing funded by the National Highway Transporta-tion and Safety Administration. Through OJJDP,individual grants of $360,000 have been madeavailable to the States and the District of Columbiato develop and implement programs that preventand combat underage drinking. Emphasis is placedon increasing law enforcement activity with regardto the sale of alcohol to minors. In addition,10 States were awarded discretionary grants todevelop and implement comprehensive communitystrategies targeting underage drinking. In all,72 States and local communities are implementingprograms to combat underage drinking. Theevaluation of the Combating Underage DrinkingProgram will determine how States and local com-munities are using these funds and evaluate theimpact of the first 2 years of the program in asample of communities.

◆ National Evaluation of the Safe Kids/SafeStreets Program. This project (funded jointlywith the Violence Against Women Office and theExecutive Office for Weed and Seed) is promot-ing community collaboration to break the cycle ofearly childhood victimization and later juvenile oradult criminality. One of the project’s goals is todevelop effective data systems that track at-riskyouth (including those who are victims of childabuse and neglect). The evaluation is looking athow communities are forming collaborations andwhich strategies are working to provide a com-prehensive and proactive response to children,adolescents, and their families. The five sites arethe National Children’s Advocacy Center, Hunts-ville, AL; Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of ChippewaIndians, MI; Heart of America United Way, Kan-sas City, MO; Toledo Hospital Children’s MedicalCenter, OH; and Community Network for Chil-dren, Youth & Family Services, ChittendenCounty, VT.

◆ Evaluating Restorative Justice Conferences.This is an evaluation of a community-based re-storative justice project for young offenders inIndianapolis, IN. Restorative justice confer-ences—which bring together the offender, victim,and supporters of each—provide an opportunityfor fuller discussion of the offense; its affect onthe victim, the offender’s family, and greater com-munity; and steps the offender can take to makeamends. This project focuses on juveniles 14 yearsof age and younger. The evaluation is looking atthe offense, the conferencing process, recidivism,and other participant outcomes.

◆ Evaluation of Community Assessment Centers.Community assessment centers provide a 24-hourcentralized, single point of intake and assessmentfor juveniles who have or are likely to come intocontact with the juvenile justice system. Theirprimary purpose is to provide earlier and moreefficient prevention and intervention services atthe front end of the juvenile justice system. Theevaluation will look at how communities are plan-ning and implementing these centers in four sitesin Colorado and Florida and compare them withmore traditional services.

5. For more information on reducing gun violence, see Office of Juve-nile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1999, Promising Strategies ToReduce Gun Violence, Report, Washington, DC: U.S. Department ofJustice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice andDelinquency Prevention. This Report can be ordered by calling theJuvenile Justice Clearinghouse at 800–638–8736.

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◆ Evaluation of the Juvenile Mentoring Program(JUMP). This national evaluation is looking atwhether the goals of this one-to-one mentoringproject—to reduce juvenile delinquency and gangparticipation by at-risk youth, improve theirschool performance, and reduce their dropoutrate—are being achieved. This evaluation willbe conducted in three cohorts of 41, 52, and 73projects. The increasing number of projects re-flects increases in appropriations from $4 millionin fiscal year (FY) 1994 to $12 million in FY 1998and FY 1999. To follow the FY 1999 cohort, theevaluation will continue through April 2001.

Juvenile Violence Research StudiesIn 1992, Congress directed OJJDP to conduct a studyof the incidence of violence committed by or againstjuveniles in urban and rural areas in the United States.The goals were to identify characteristics and patternsof at-risk juveniles and factors that contribute to vio-lence committed by or against juveniles; to determinethe accessibility of firearms and the use of firearms byor against juveniles; to determine the conditions associ-ated with an increase in violence committed by oragainst juveniles; and to develop recommendations forprevention and control of juvenile violence.

Some preliminary findings of the evaluation of JUMP have been highlighted in Juvenile Mentoring Program:1998 Report to Congress.1

◆ JUMP projects address multiple risk factors. Morethan half of juveniles come from single-parenthouseholds, and only one-quarter live with theirbiological fathers. Other risk factors includeschool problems, social/family problems, delin-quency (fighting, gangs), substance use, andpregnancy.

◆ Mentors represent a wide range of demographiccharacteristics. Approximately half are white(which differs from the juvenile population). Sev-eral projects report efforts to increase African-American and male recruitment. About 90percent of mentors have some college experi-ence, and more than half have college or gradu-ate degrees.

◆ Waiting time for a match is relatively brief—anaverage of 2.7 months. Most projects use genderas a match criterion, and many consider race andethnicity when making the match.

◆ Juveniles and mentors view their mentoring expe-rience as positive. Overall, they believe thatmentoring helped.

Evaluation of the Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP)

1. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1998, Juvenile Mentoring Program: 1998 Report to Congress,Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention. For a copy of the Report, call the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at 800–638–8736.

◆ JUMP projects have multiple goals, although de-linquency prevention, improved school perfor-mance, and increased school attendance aremost often listed.

◆ Community collaboration is a key feature of JUMPprojects.

◆ In most cases (84 percent), activities in whichthe mentor and juvenile participate are selectedand implemented individually by the pair. Abouthalf of the projects also include structured social/recreational activities.

◆ Many JUMP projects supplement their core men-toring activities with additional services, such asparent support and self-help groups.

◆ Training and supervision are key JUMP projectcomponents.

◆ The typical JUMP juvenile is 12 to 14 years old(although ages range from 5 to 18). Approxi-mately 50 percent are girls. African-Americanjuveniles make up the majority of those enrolledacross all JUMP projects, with white and Hispanicjuveniles making up most of the balance.

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To accomplish this task, OJJDP funded four newviolence studies:

◆ Studies of Violence Committed By or AgainstJuveniles in Washington, DC (Institute for Lawand Justice, The Urban Institute, and LINC).

◆ Juvenile Violence in Los Angeles (Social SciencesResearch Institute at the University of SouthernCalifornia).

◆ Violence Among Rural Youth (Institute for Fami-lies in Society at the University of South Carolina).

◆ The Milwaukee Homicide Study (University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee).

OJJDP also continued funding three coordinatedlongitudinal projects, known collectively as theProgram of Research on the Causes and Correlates

of Delinquency (see pages 7–9 for more informa-tion about these studies). The findings of theseseven studies are summarized in Report to Congress onJuvenile Violence Research.6

Juveniles in Detention and theConditions of ConfinementThe Research Division administers several projectsthat examine the number and characteristics of juve-niles in residential facilities and prison and the con-ditions of that confinement, such as the programs

Report highlights include the following:

◆ Although juvenile violence is committed primarilyby males, females appear to be getting moreinvolved in violent behavior.

◆ Many violent juvenile offenders live in impover-ished neighborhoods, although the majority ofyouth who live in these communities are notinvolved in serious delinquency.

◆ Several studies found that patterns of juvenileviolence are inconsistent across cities. Contraryto findings from other studies that most juvenileviolent crime takes place after school, juvenilehomicides in Los Angeles occurred more often

Report to Congress on Juvenile Violence Research

late at night and in public places and frequentlyinvolved gang members.

◆ In Washington, D.C., victimization patterns differedthroughout the year. During the summer, juvenileswere most vulnerable to crime after 11 p.m.,whereas during the school year, the most vulner-able period was between 3 and 5 p.m.

◆ Although the majority of youth in high-riskneighborhoods are not involved in gangs, theLos Angeles survey found that 36 percent re-ported pressure on neighborhood youth to joingangs. Those who had been gang members atsome time reported becoming full members atage 13.

The overriding message from these studies is that a balanced and comprehensive approach is needed in ad-dressing the problem of juvenile violence. Communities must work with the juvenile justice system to preventthe development of violent behavior and to intervene with violent youth in effective ways. Using precisely thisconcept, OJJDP’s Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juve-nile Offenders1 provides a framework for strategic responses at the community, city, State, and national levelsdesigned to target the problem of juvenile violence.

For a copy of the Report to Congress, call the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at 800–638–8736.

6. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,1999, Report to Congress on Juvenile Violence Research, Wash-ington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of JusticePrograms, Office of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention.

1. J.C. Howell, ed., 1995, Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic JuvenileOffenders, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention.

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and services available for rehabilitation. Several ofthese projects are already under way; others are indevelopment. Projects focusing on these areas in-clude the following:

◆ Assessment of Space Needs in Juvenile Deten-tion and Corrections. In FY 1998, Congress di-rected OJJDP to report on the capacity of theNation’s juvenile detention and corrections systemsand to indicate the systems’ ability to deal withprojected populations of juveniles in the future. Inits Report to Congress, OJJDP noted the lack ofdata for such projections and the lack of adequateprojection methods.7 To rectify this deficiency, theResearch Division is funding the development ofsophisticated methods of planning for future popu-lations, including consensus committee planningand sophisticated statistical modeling. VariousState efforts to plan for present and future needsare being examined, including administrativejudgments and single population change models.Based on this information, the Research Divisionwill inform other States and localities on ways thatspace needs assessments can be improved.

◆ Detailed Analysis of Conditions of Confine-ment. This study examined key issues in under-standing conditions and correctional practices insecure juvenile facilities, including correctionaleducational practices, an update on overcrowd-ing, and differences in perception of the condi-tions by staff and youth.

◆ Performance-Based Standards for Juvenile De-tention and Corrections (Demonstration Projectand Evaluation). The Research Division estab-lished working groups to identify basic standardsfor juvenile detention and correction facilities in sixareas: safety, order, security, physical and mentalhealth, justice, and programming (including educa-tion and treatment services). The project also de-veloped outcome, expected practice, and processmethods of measuring whether facilities are meet-ing standards. More than 30 selected sites agreedto participate in this important demonstration

7. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, inpress, An Assessment of Space Needs in Juvenile Detention and Correc-tions Facilities, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice,Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice andDelinquency Prevention.

effort. The evaluation is examining the impact ofperformance-based standards on specific facilities.

◆ Race, Overconfinement, and Crowding inJuvenile Corrections Facilities. This projecthas brought together the body of research fromacross the Nation on State juvenile justice process-ing and minority overrepresentation in secure con-finement. In the past, individual researchers andState organizations held these data, but this projectis (1) identifying common variables across Statesand (2) conducting secondary data analysis andcomparison to get a wider view of these issues. Theproject is considering questions such as: When intheir juvenile court careers do delinquent youthreceive their first secure confinement disposition?Does the type of disposition for an offense affect theprobability of a subsequent offense? Do the factorsaffecting population flow into juvenile institutionsvary by race and other personal, social, and legalcharacteristics?

◆ Enhancing Personnel Training and Understand-ing of Minority Overrepresentation in the Ju-venile Justice System. This project is designedto enhance the training of inservice profession-als—in particular those who work in community-based programs and with juveniles—and willinvestigate factors contributing to minorityoverrepresentation in the juvenile justice system.It is essential that program managers and profes-sionals recognize the importance of keeping upwith demographic trends and adapt programsso that they are responsive to the needs of thecommunity. For example, it is estimated that theHispanic juvenile population in Texas will in-crease dramatically during the next decade. Juve-nile justice agencies, courts, and youth-servingprograms need to be alerted to this trend andrespond accordingly. This project will result indevelopment of a master’s degree program inForensic Psychology at Prairie View University,Prairie View, TX, and a manual for use in manag-ing community-based programs.

◆ Cost-Benefit Analysis of Juvenile Justice Pro-grams (University of Texas at Dallas, TX). In FY1998, OJJDP awarded a grant to the Universityof Texas at Dallas to conduct a cost-benefit analysisof juvenile probation, detention, and corrections

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programs. This project is providing an indepthstudy of the costs associated with each dispositionand the expected benefits. By putting costs andbenefits into monetary terms, policymakers canmore easily discern which disposition providesthe greatest benefit for the lowest cost and forwhom. However, this particular type of analysis is

subject to differing values placed on distinctintangible outcomes. As in the Assessment ofSpace Needs project described above, the useof cost-benefit analysis makes explicit the as-sumptions of policymakers so that a morereasoned policy can be implemented.

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Emerging Research

Another goal of OJJDP’s Research Division is toidentify and strategically support emerging researchin areas of primary interest. OJJDP has identifiedthe following fields in which research is unfolding.These are new projects sponsored by OJJDP.

Research on VeryYoung OffendersMajor findings of OJJDP-sponsored work on seri-ous and violent juvenile offenders—namely, that mostchronic juvenile offenders begin their criminal careersprior to age 12, some as early as 10 years of age—ledthe Research Division to support the development ofthe Study Group on Very Young Offenders in 1998.This Study Group is exploring what is known about

OJJDP Study Group on Very Young Offenders

Barbara J. Burns, Ph.D., Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC

Dante Cicchetti, Ph.D., Mount Hope Family Center, Rochester, NY

John Coie, Ph.D., Duke University, Durham, NC

David P. Farrington, Ph.D., University of Cambridge, England

Darnell F. Hawkins, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago

J. David Hawkins, Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle, WA

James C. Howell, Ph.D., Institute for Intergovernmental Research, Tallahassee, FL

David Huizinga, Ph.D., University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

Kate Keenan, Ph.D., University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Rolf Loeber, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Dan Offord, M.D., Chedoke McMasters Hospital, Ontario, Canada

Howard N. Snyder, Ph.D., The National Center for Juvenile Justice, Pittsburgh, PA

Richard Tremblay, Ph.D., University of Montreal, Quebec, Montreal

Terence P. Thornberry, Ph.D., University at Albany, State University of New York

Gail A. Wasserman, Ph.D., Columbia University, New York, NY

the prevalence and frequency of very young offend-ing under the age of 13. Specific areas being exam-ined include whether such offending predicts futuredelinquent or criminal careers, how these juvenilesare handled by various systems (juvenile justice, men-tal health, social services), and what the best methodsare for preventing very young offending and persis-tence of offending. A report will be issued in 2000.

Juvenile Transfers toAdult Criminal CourtAll States allow juveniles under certain conditionsto be tried in criminal courts through one or moretransfer mechanisms (e.g., judicial waiver, pro-secutorial direct file, statutory exclusion). By 1996,

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Practices in selected jurisdictions in Arizona, Florida,New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Caro-lina, and Utah are being studied. Some issues beingexamined include characteristics that determinewhether a case is transferred, dynamics of jurisdic-tions in which case transfers occur, and differencesbetween transferred and nontransferred cases interms of sentencing, services, and recidivism.

School ViolenceSchool violence, truancy, drugs, and gangs areproblems confronting many communities. OJJDPis helping to address these issues through a varietyof Research Division activities. In 1997, OJJDPfunded the creation of the Hamilton Fish NationalInstitute on School and Community Violence at TheGeorge Washington University to test the effective-ness of violence prevention methods and to developmore effective school-based strategies. As part ofthe Institute, a consortium of seven universities wasformed. Each university in the consortium worksdirectly with a local school system to implement andtest schoolwide interventions that promote safety byreducing fighting, bullying, truancy, and drug use andenhancing positive student interaction. Through thiseffort, the Institute is identifying programs that canbe replicated to reduce violence in America’s schoolsand communities.

Juvenile Transfer Studies

◆ Comparative Impact of Juvenile versus CriminalCourt Sanctions on Recidivism Among Adoles-cent Felony Offenders: A Replication and Ex-tension, conducted by Jeffrey Fagan, Ph.D.,Columbia School of Public Health, ColumbiaUniversity, New York, NY.

◆ Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Studies,conducted by Stephen Walters-Chapman,Ph.D., Juvenile Justice Advisory Board of JointLegislative Management Committee, Tallahassee,FL.

◆ Project to Study the Outcome of Juvenile Trans-fer to Criminal Court, conducted by Howard N.Snyder, Ph.D., The National Center for JuvenileJustice, National Council of Juvenile and FamilyCourt Judges, Pittsburgh, PA.

Universities in the Consortium of the Hamilton Fish National Institute on School and Community Violence

every State in the country had enacted policies orlegislation designed to increase the number of juve-niles whose cases could be sent to criminal court.What is the impact of these practices? Under whatcircumstances are juveniles transferred to criminalcourt? What are the outcomes of these cases? TheResearch Division currently has three studies underway seeking answers to these and other questions.

Institute for Violence and Destructive BehaviorCollege of EducationUniversity of OregonEugene, OR

Office of Sponsored ResearchThe George Washington UniversityWashington, DC

School of Criminology and Center for Policy Studies in EducationFlorida State UniversityTallahassee, FL

School of EducationSyracuse UniversitySyracuse, NY

Center for Health Promotion and Public Health PracticeDepartment of Community Health and Preventive MedicineMorehouse School of MedicineAtlanta, GA

Center for Prevention ResearchDepartment of SociologyUniversity of KentuckyLexington, KY

Department of Criminal JusticeUniversity of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeMilwaukee, WI

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OJJDP is also working with other offices within theU.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department ofEducation, and the U.S. Department of Health andHuman Services to initiate a coordinated effort focusedon school and community safety. This project, SafeSchools/Healthy Students, will streamline the applica-tion process for school districts and communities todevelop and implement comprehensive, communitywidestrategies that create safe environments for learning.The Research Division is contributing to this effort byproviding direction and oversight for a national evalua-tion of the program.

In addition to these school safety efforts, the ResearchDivision will administer the National Evaluation of theTruancy Reduction Demonstration Program, a jointeffort of OJJDP, the U.S. Department of Education,and the Executive Office for Weed and Seed. Theevaluation will assess the effect of a variety of truancyreduction projects in the country, determine how com-munity collaboration can affect truancy and lead tosystemic reform, and assist in developing a truancyreduction program model for community use.

Comprehensive GangStrategy ResearchThe Research Division is currently evaluatingOJJDP’s demonstration initiative, the Comprehensive

Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention,Intervention, and Suppression Program, which isbeing implemented in five jurisdictions: Bloomington,IL; Mesa, AZ; Riverside, CA; San Antonio, TX; andTucson, AZ.

This evaluation is testing a community-based modelthat coordinates services (social, academic, vocational,law enforcement) to prevent youth involvement ingangs, intervene with gang-involved juveniles, andsuppress the criminal impact of gangs.

Research on GirlsFemale involvement in the juvenile justice systemcontinues to rise at the same time that male juvenileinvolvement declines. One in four juvenile arrests in1996 was of a female, with violent crime arrests in-creasing 25 percent between 1992 and 1996. Over-all, increases in arrests between 1992 and 1996 weregreater for juvenile females than juvenile males inmost offense categories. It is important to learn moreabout why and how girls commit crime and how tointervene effectively to prevent and treat femalejuvenile delinquency. OJJDP has responded bylaunching a multilevel approach that includes re-viewing how States are dealing with female juvenileoffenders, developing an inventory of best practices,producing a prototype training curriculum, and

Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention, andSuppression: The Five Strategies

Opportunities Provision: Providing employment,training, and educational opportunities and cul-tural enrichment programs directed to gang youthand youth at high risk of gang membership.

Suppression: Holding juveniles accountable for theircrimes and misbehavior in accordance with law,social policy, and the interests of the community.

Organizational Change and Development: Modify-ing and developing agency and community policiesand practices that facilitate effective implementa-tion of the first four strategies and that enhancethe community’s capacity specifically to preventand reduce the juvenile gang problem.

Community Mobilization: Organizing and maintain-ing an interactive group of citywide and localagencies, community organizations, groups, andresidents, including former gang members, to de-velop a coordinated policy and program approachto the juvenile gang problem.

Social Intervention: Reaching out and contactinggang youth, those at high risk of gang involvement,and their families to deliver social services. This isaccomplished with the collaboration of local citi-zens, schools, and agencies including criminal jus-tice, employment, and social services.

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implementing a variety of program developmentactivities. Several projects supported by the Re-search Division have components that focus on girls,including the Program of Research on the Causesand Correlates of Delinquency. The Research Divi-sion anticipates supporting additional research onfemale juvenile delinquency and evaluations of effec-tive programs for girls.

Research on AmericanIndian JuvenilesAlthough violent crime rates are declining through-out the Nation, they continue to rise in IndianCountry. Children in Indian Country are especiallyvulnerable. More than one-third are at risk of be-coming victims of abuse and/or neglect. In addition,the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau ofIndian Affairs found an estimated 375 gangs with4,652 gang members in Indian Country in 1997.However, there is a critical need to learn more aboutthe extent, nature, and roots of delinquency amongtribal youth.

In FY 1999, OJJDP will implement a new TribalYouth Program. This $10 million effort will focus oncomprehensive delinquency prevention and controland on juvenile justice system improvement forAmerican Indian youth. The Research Division willoversee the research, evaluation, and statistics com-ponents of this project and expects to support sev-eral research efforts nationwide. The Tribal YouthProgram has four focus areas:

◆ Reduction, control, and prevention of crime bothby and against tribal youth.

◆ Interventions for court-involved tribal youth.

◆ Improvements to tribal juvenile justice systems.

◆ Prevention programs focusing on alcohol anddrugs.

This program will be closely coordinated with otherbureaus within the U.S. Department of Justice, theBureau of Indian Affairs, and the U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services’ Indian Health Service.

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This Report summarizing recent research sponsoredby OJJDP’s Research and Program DevelopmentDivision emphasizes the importance of investing inresearch as a way of responding to the needs of chil-dren at risk of delinquency. During the past severalyears, much has been learned about the factors thatput youth at greater risk for delinquency, their pat-terns of offending, strategies that work in respondingto their needs and behavior, and community re-sponses needed to ensure the safety of children andtheir families. Despite the knowledge gained, how-ever, there is still much to learn.

The ultimate goal of the Research Division’s work isto prevent youth at risk of pursuing a delinquentcareer from doing so and to assist youth already inthe juvenile justice system in turning away fromfuture delinquency and criminal behavior and be-coming productive citizens. One of the most impor-tant points that this Report demonstrates is the need

Conclusion

to use what has been learned to craft solutions andinterventions to the problems of juvenile crime andviolence. OJJDP is committed to using the knowl-edge gained through research to inform programinitiatives. Together, OJJDP divisions and programunits provide a continuum of activity that fully sup-ports the efforts of researchers, policymakers, courts,schools, juvenile justice facilities, practitioners, par-ents, and juveniles.

Recognizing the critical needs of policymakers andpractitioners, OJJDP will continue to partner withthe many highly skilled researchers in the field con-ducting research studies, performing evaluations,and collecting and analyzing statistics on juvenilecrime. OJJDP, with the help of these researchers,will use what is learned to develop programs andsolutions that make a difference to juveniles, theirfamilies, and their communities.

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Appendix A: 1998 Active Grants, Interagencyand Intra-Agency Agreements, Contract,and Purchase Orders

Grants

Adjudicative Competence and Maturity ofJuvenile OffendersUniversity of VirginiaDepartment of Psychology102 Gilmer HallCharlottesville, VA 22903–2477OJJDP Grant 97–JN–FX–0018

Assessing ADM Disorders Among JuvenileDetainees: Gang-Related VariablesNorthwestern University633 Clark StreetEvanston, IL 60208OJJDP Grant 98–JD–FX–0002

Assessment of Psychiatric Risk inIncarcerated YouthResearch Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.44 Holland AvenueNew York, NY 12229OJJDP Grant 98–JB–VX–0115

Assessment of Space Needs in JuvenileDetention and CorrectionsThe Urban Institute2100 M Street NW.Washington, DC 20037OJJDP Grant 98–JB–VX–0114

Center for Research on Crime AgainstChildrenUniversity of New HampshireOffice of Sponsored Research4 Garrison AvenueDurham, NH 03824–3585OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0012

Chicago Project for Violence PreventionUniversity of Illinois-ChicagoSchool of Public HealthOffice of Research ServicesChicago, IL 60612OJJDP Grant 96–MU–FX–0013

Comparative Impact of Juvenile VersusCriminal Court Sanctions on RecidivismAmong Adolescent Felony Offenders:A Replication and ExtensionColumbia School of Public HealthTrustees of Columbia University-City of New YorkHealth Science Division630 West 168th StreetNew York, NY 10032OJJDP Grant 97–JN–FX–0001

Consortium on Children, Families, andthe LawUniversity of South CarolinaInstitute for Families in SocietyCarolina Plaza, 12th FloorOsborne Administration BuildingColumbia, SC 29208OJJDP Grants 97–JN–FX–0016, 98–JN–FX–0015

A–2

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Juvenile JusticeProgramsUniversity of Texas-DallasP.O. Box 830688Richardson, TX 75083OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0001

Criminal Justice Response to ParentalAbduction CasesAmerican Bar Association Fund for Justice and EducationABA Center on Children and the Law740 15th Street NW.Washington, DC 20005OJJDP Grant 93–MC–CX–0010

Delinquency and Criminal Street GangAffiliation Among Southeast Asian YouthWestminster Police DepartmentCity of Westminster-Civic Center8200 Westminster BoulevardWestminster, CA 92683OJJDP Grant 95–JD–FX–0014

Detailed Analysis of Conditions ofConfinement (formerly called MarketingConditions of Confinement Study)Abt Associates Inc.55 Wheeler StreetCambridge, MA 02138–1168OJJDP Grant 95–JN–CX–K006

Developmental Dynamics of GangMembership and DelinquencyUniversity of WashingtonSocial Development Research Group9725 Third Avenue NE., Suite 401Seattle, WA 98115–2024OJJDP Grant 95–JD–FX–0017

Effective Screening of Child Care andYouth Service WorkersAmerican Bar Association Fund for Justice and EducationABA Center on Children and the Law740 15th Street NW.Washington, DC 20005OJJDP Grant 92–MC–CX–0013

Enhancing Personnel Training andUnderstanding MinorityOverrepresentation in the JuvenileJustice SystemPrairie View A&M UniversityTexas Juvenile Crime Prevention CenterP.O. Box 4017Prairie View, TX 77446OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0014

Evaluation/Enhancement of JuvenileDispositional Guidelines SystemDelaware Council on Crime and Justice, Inc.501 Shipley Street, Unit 3AWilmington, DE 19801OJJDP Grant 91–JN–CX–0007

Evaluation of a Childhood ViolencePrevention ProgramCornell UniversityFamily Life Development CenterDay HallIthaca, NY 14853–2791OJJDP Grants 95–JN–CX–0021, 96–JN–FX–0006

Evaluation of Partnerships To ReduceJuvenile Gun Violence ProgramCOSMOS Corporation3 Bethesda Metro Center, Suite 950Bethesda, MD 20814OJJDP Grant 97–MU–FX–0004

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Evaluation of Teen CourtsThe Urban Institute2100 M Street NW.Washington, DC 20037OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0003

Evaluation of the “Act Now” TruancyDiversion ProgramAmerican Prosecutors Research Institute99 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 510Alexandria, VA 22314OJJDP Grant 96–JN–FX–0010

Evaluation of the Combating UnderageDrinking ProgramWake Forest University1834 Wake Forest RoadSchool of MedicineMedical Center BoulevardWinston-Salem, NC 25157OJJDP Grant 98–AH–F8–0101

Evaluation of the ComprehensiveCommunity-Wide Approach to GangPrevention, Intervention, andSuppression ProgramUniversity of ChicagoSchool of Social Services5801 South EllisChicago, IL 60637OJJDP Grants 95–JD–CX–K002, 96–JD–FX– K001, 97–MU–FX–K014

Evaluation of the Drug-Free CommunitiesSupport ProgramCaliber Associates, Inc.10530 Rosehaven Street, Suite 400Fairfax, VA 22030OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0016

Evaluation of the Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration andTechnical Assistance ProgramNational Council on Crime and Delinquency685 Market Street, Suite 620San Francisco, CA 94105OJJDP Grants 95–JN–CX–0007, 95–JN–FX–0023

Evaluation of the Juvenile MentoringProgram (JUMP)Information Technology International6701 Democracy Boulevard, Suite 700Bethesda, MD 20817–1572OJJDP Grants 97–JN–FX–0003, 98–JG–FX–0002

Evaluation of the Youth Led SubstanceAbuse Prevention Program (PCPC)University of New HampshireDepartment of Health and Human ServicesHewett HallDurham, NH 03824–3585OJJDP Grant 97–JN–FX–0019

Finding and Knowing the Gang Naye’e inthe Navajo NationNavajo Nation Judicial BranchP.O. Box 520Window Rock, AZ 86515OJJDP Grant 95–JD–FX–0013

Gang Membership and Involvement inSerious and Violent DelinquencyUniversity at Albany, State University of New YorkResearch Foundation of the State University of New YorkHindelang Criminal Justice Research Center135 Western AvenueAlbany, NY 12222OJJDP Grant 95–JD–FX–0015

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Hamilton Fish National Institute on Schooland Community ViolenceThe George Washington UniversityOffice of Sponsored Research2121 Eye Street NW.Washington, DC 20052OJJDP Grant 97–MU–FX–K012

Integration of Pregnancy and EarlyChildhood Home Visitation IntoOperation Weed and SeedUniversity of Colorado Health Sciences CenterDepartment of Pediatrics1825 Marion StreetDenver, CO 80218OJJDP Grants 95–DD–BX–0181, 98–MU–MU–0006, 98–JN–FX–0005

Interagency Coordination andInformation Sharing Early InterventionModelMayor’s Anti-Gang OfficeCity of HoustonP.O. Box 1562Houston, TX 77251OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0010

Issues in Resolving Cases of InternationalParental Abductions of ChildrenAmerican Bar Association Fund for Justice and EducationABA Center on Children and the Law740 15th Street NW.Washington, DC 20005OJJDP Grant 93–MC–CX–0007

Juvenile Crime, Prevention, Treatment,and ControlNational Academy of SciencesNational Research Council2101 Constitution Avenue NW.Washington, DC 20418OJJDP Grant 97–JN–FX–0020

Juvenile Justice EvaluationResearch CenterJustice Research and Statistics Association, Inc. (JRSA)777 North Capitol Street NE., Suite 801Washington, DC 20002OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0112

Juvenile Justice Statistics and SystemsDevelopment ProgramNational Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ)National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ)P.O. Box 8970Reno, NV 89507OJJDP Grant 95–JN–FX–K008

Juvenile Transfers to CriminalCourt StudiesJuvenile Justice Advisory BoardJoint Legislative Management Committee308 Holland BuildingTallahassee, FL 32399OJJDP Grant 95–JN–FX–0030

Juvenile Violence in Los Angeles:Collecting Juvenile Violence Data forJuvenile Violence ReductionUniversity of Southern CaliforniaUniversity Park CampusLos Angeles, CA 90089–1111OJJDP Grants 95–JN–CX–0015, 96–JN–FX– 0004, 97–JD–FX–0002

A Longitudinal Multi-Disciplinary Study ofDevelopmental Patterns (Program ofResearch on the Causes and Correlatesof Delinquency)University of Colorado at BoulderInstitute of Behavioral ScienceCampus Box 483Boulder, CO 80309–0483OJJDP Grant 96–MU–FX–0017

A–5

Milwaukee Homicide ProjectUniversity of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeUniversity of Wisconsin Graduate SchoolBoard of RegentsP.O. Box 413Milwaukee, WI 53201OJJDP Grant 95–JN–FX–0028

National Evaluation of SafeFuturesProgram: Phase I Study of ProgramDevelopment and ImplementationThe Urban Institute2100 M Street NW.Washington, DC 20031OJJDP Grant 95–JN–FX–K012

National Evaluation of the Safe Kids/SafeStreets ProgramWestat, Inc.1650 Research BoulevardRockville, MD 20850OJJDP Grant 97–MU–MU–0005

National Juvenile Court Data ArchiveNational Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ)National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ)P.O. Box 8970Reno, NV 89507OJJDP Grant 95–JN–FX–0008

National Youth Gang CenterInstitute for Intergovernmental ResearchP.O. Box 12729Tallahassee, FL 32317OJJDP Grant 95–JD–MU–K001

A Panel Study of Reciprocal Causal Modelof Delinquency (Program of Research onthe Causes and Correlates of Delinquency)University at Albany, State University of New YorkHindelang Criminal Justice Research Center135 Western AvenueAlbany, NY 12222OJJDP Grant 96–MU–FX–0014

Pathways to IncarcerationSchool of Social WelfareRegents of University of CaliforniaSponsored Projects Office336 Sproul HallBerkeley, CA 94720OJJDP Grant 96–JN–FX–0008

Performance-Based Standards forJuvenile Detention and CorrectionsStonehill CollegeCouncil of Juvenile Correctional Administrators16 Belmont StreetSouth Easton, MA 02375OJJDP Grants 95–JN–FX–K011, 98–JB– VX–K003

Planning for the Survey of Youth inResidential PlacementWestat, Inc.1650 Research BoulevardRockville, MD 20850OJJDP Grant 98–JB–VX–K002

Preventing Juvenile Crime: EvaluatingRestorative Justice Conferences as anInnovative Response to Juvenile CrimeHudson InstituteCrime Control Policy CenterP.O. Box 26919Indianapolis, IN 46226OJJDP Grant 96–JN–FX–0007

A–6

Prevention of Parent or Family Abductionof Children Through Early Identification ofRisk FactorsAmerican Bar Association Fund for Justice and EducationABA Center on Children and the Law740 15th Street NW.Washington, DC 20005OJJDP Grant 92–MC–CX–0007

Program To Increase Understanding ofChild Sexual ExploitationEducation Development Center, Inc.55 Chapel StreetNewton, MA 02160OJJDP Grant 92–MC–CX–0008

Progressions in Antisocial and DelinquentChild Behavior (Program of Researchon the Causes and Correlates ofDelinquency)University of Pittsburgh Medical CenterWestern Psychiatric Institute3811 O’Hara StreetPittsburgh, PA 15213–2593OJJDP Grant 96–MU–FX–0012

Project To Study the Outcome of JuvenileTransfer to Criminal CourtNational Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ)National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ)P.O. Box 8970Reno, NV 89507OJJDP Grant 95–JN–FX–0029

Proposal To Evaluate CommunityAssessment CentersNational Council on Crime and Delinquency685 Market Street, Suite 620San Francisco, CA 94105OJJDP Grants 95–JN–FX–0002, 98–JB–VX–0113

Proposed Scientific Panel To Report tothe Office of Juvenile Justice andDelinquency Prevention (Serious ViolentJuvenile Offender Study)University of PittsburghOffice of Research139 University Place350 Thackeray HallPittsburgh, PA 15260–2605OJJDP Grant 95–JD–FX–0018

Psychological Consequences and PromisingInterventions: A Study To Resurvey theRespondents in the Original StudyUniversity of California at San FranciscoCenter for the Study of Trauma655 Redwood Highway, #251Mill Valley, CA 94941–3011OJJDP Grant 93–MC–CX–0006

Race, Overconfinement and Crowding inJuvenile Correctional FacilitiesInstitute for Social ResearchRegents of the University of Michigan3003 South State StreetAnn Arbor, MI 48106–1274OJJDP Grant 96–JN–FX–0011

Research Program on Juveniles TakenInto CustodyNational Council on Crime and Delinquency685 Market Street, Suite 620San Francisco, CA 94105OJJDP Grant 95–JN–FX–K002

Second National Incidence Studies ofMissing, Abducted, Runaway andThrownaway Children (NISMART 2)Temple UniversityInstitute for Survey Research1601 North Broad StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19122OJJDP Grant 95–MC–CX–K004

A–7

Secondary Analysis of ChildhoodVictimization DataUniversity at Albany, State University of New YorkResearch Foundation of the State University of New YorkHindelang Criminal Justice Research Center135 Western AvenueAlbany, NY 12222OJJDP Grant 97–JN–FX–0015

Sex Offender TypologyHealth Related Research825 Crawford ParkwayPortsmouth, VA 23704OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0008

Sex Offender Typology: Feasibility Studyof Data CollectionUniversity of Illinois-SpringfieldCenter for Legal StudiesP.O. Box 19243Springfield, IL 62794–9243OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0006

Socialization to Gangs in an EmergingGang CityUniversity of Missouri at St. LouisCurators of the University of MissouriDepartment of Criminology and Criminal Justice8001 Natural Bridge RoadSt. Louis, MO 63121–4499OJJDP Grant 97–IJ–CX–0010

Studies of Violence Committed By orAgainst JuvenilesInstitute for Law and Justice1018 Duke StreetAlexandria, VA 22314OJJDP Grants 95–JN–CX–0010, 96–JN– FX–0005

Survey of School-Based Gang Preventionand Intervention ProgramsGottfredson Associates, Inc.3239B Corporate CourtEllicott City, MD 21042OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0004

Translating Research on Safe andViolence-Free Schools Into EffectivePracticesUniversity of Oregon-EugeneInstitute on Violence and Destructive Behavior13th AvenueEugene, OR 97403OJJDP Grant 97–JN–FX–0022

Violence Among Rural YouthUniversity of South CarolinaInstitute for Families in Society937 Assembly StreetCarolina Plaza, Room 1220Columbia, SC 29208OJJDP Grants 94–JN–CX–0005, 95–JN– FX–0025, 96–MU–FX–0016

Youth-Focused Community PolicingChicago Police DepartmentCity of Chicago1121 South StateChicago, IL 60605OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0106

Youth-Focused Community PolicingKansas City Police DepartmentUnified Government of Wyandotte County701 North Seventh Street, Room G–2Kansas City, KS 66101–3065OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0013

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Youth-Focused Community PolicingCommission for Children, Youth, and Their FamiliesCity of Los Angeles333 South Spring StreetLos Angeles, CA 90013OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0009

Youth-Focused Community PolicingRio Grande Valley Empowerment Zone301 South TexasMercedes, TX 78570OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0056

Youth-Focused Community PolicingOffice of the MayorCity of Mound Bayou106 South Green AvenueMound Bayou, MS 38762OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0089

Youth-Focused Community PolicingOffice of the City ManagerCity of OaklandOne City Hall Plaza, Third FloorOakland, CA 94612OJJDP Grant 98–JN–FX–0011

Youth-Focused Community PolicingFox Valley Technical College1825 North Bluemound DriveP.O. Box 2217Oshkosh, WI 54903–2217OJJDP Grant 96–JN–FX–K001

Youth Gangs in Juvenile Detention andCorrections FacilitiesNational Juvenile Detention Association301 Perkins BuildingRichmond, KY 40475–3127OJJDP Grant 96–JD–FX–0004

Interagency and Intra-AgencyAgreements

Data Collection Programs for OJJDP(Includes Census of Juveniles inResidential Placement, JuvenileResidential Facility Census, NationalJuvenile Justice Program Directory, andSurvey of Juvenile Probation)U.S. Department of CommerceBureau of the CensusGovernment DivisionWashington Plaza, Building 2Washington, DC 20233OJJDP IAA 98–JN–R–034

Development of the Survey of JuvenileProbationU.S. Department of CommerceCenter for Survey Methods ResearchBureau of the CensusBuilding 4, Room 3133Washington, DC 20233OJJDP IAA 96–JN–R–054

Diffusion of State Risk/Protective-FocusedPreventionNational Institute on Drug Abuse5600 Fishers LaneRockville, MD 20857OJJDP IAA 97–JN–R–072

Interagency Forum on Child andFamily StatisticsNational Institutes of HealthNational Institute for Child Health and Human Development9000 Rockville PikeBethesda, MD 20892–7510OJJDP IAA 98–JN–R–047

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Intergenerational Transmission ofAntisocial BehaviorNational Institute of Mental Health6001 Executive BoulevardRockville, MD 20892–9663OJJDP IAA 98–JN–R–094

Multi-Site, Multimodal TreatmentStudy of Children With ADHDNational Institute of Mental HealthDivision of Service and Intervention Research6001 Executive BoulevardRockville, MD 20892–9663OJJDP IAA 99–JP–R–050

National Evaluation of Performance BasedStandards Program for JuvenileConfinement FacilitiesU.S. Department of Commerce1401 Constitution Avenue NW.Washington, DC 20230OJJDP IAA 98–JB–R–061

National Longitudinal Survey ofYouth 1997U.S. Department of LaborOffice of Employment and Unemployment StatisticsBureau of Labor Statistics2 Massachusetts Avenue NE.Washington, DC 20212OJJDP IAA 97–JN–R–045

Quantum Opportunity ProgramU.S. Department of LaborOffice of Policy and ResearchEmployment and Training Administration200 Constitution Avenue NW.Washington, DC 20210OJJDP IAA 98–JN–R–093

Risk Reduction Via Promotion ofYouth DevelopmentNational Institute of Mental HealthMental Health Prevention Research Branch6001 Executive BoulevardRockville, MD 20892–9063OJJDP IAA 97–JN–R–031

Contract

Contract To Evaluate OJJDP ProgramsCaliber Associates, Inc.10530 Rosehaven Street, Suite 400Fairfax, VA 22030OJP–95–C–006

Purchase Orders

Institute for Legislative PracticesMcGeorge School of Law3200 Fifth AvenueSacramento, CA 95817OJP–99–007–M

International Classification ofPreventive TrialsUniversity of South FloridaCollege of Public Health13201 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, MDC 56Tampa, FL 33612–3805OJP–99–061–M

Replication of the South Carolina Studyin UtahJan Rivers Solomon4903 Forest Lake PlaceColumbia, SC 29206OJP–98–084–M

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Appendix B: OJJDP Publications and ProductsFrom the Research Division 1994–Present

The publications listed below are available throughOJJDP’s Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse by calling800–638–8736, visiting OJJDP’s Web site atwww.ojjdp.ncjrs.org, or by e-mailing the Clearing-house at puborder@ncjrs.org. The products listedbelow are available through OJJDP’s Web site atwww.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/facts/ezaccess.html.

Publications1996 National Youth Gang Survey (Summary). 1999.75 pp. NCJ 173964. FREE

Presents findings of the 1996 National Youth GangSurvey, conducted by the National Youth Gang Cen-ter. The 1996 survey was the largest of its type—results are based on a sample of more than 3,000 lawenforcement agencies and are nationally representa-tive. Survey results indicate that the youth gangproblem is substantial and affects communities of alltypes. The Summary provides analysis and statisticson number, types, and locations of gangs; memberdemographics; and gang involvement in crime anddrugs. Copies of the 1995 National Youth Gang Surveyalso are available.

1998 Annual Report on School Safety (Report). 1998.46 pp. NCJ 173934. FREE.

Provides parents, schools, and the community with anoverview of the scope of school crime, and describesactions schools and communities can take to addressthis critical issue. This Report includes data that indi-cate a substantial amount of crime, including violentcrime, against both students and teachers. It also sup-plies profiles of schools that have put in place programsthat include school security, education in violence pre-vention, counseling, and specialized student services.Steps for developing and implementing a comprehen-sive school safety plan are described.

1998 Report to Congress: Title V Incentive Grants for LocalDelinquency Prevention Programs (Report). 1999. 56pp. NCJ 176342. FREE.

Presents the activities and accomplishments of theTitle V Incentive Grants for Local DelinquencyPrevention Programs. With this program, OJJDPprovides communities with the framework, tools,and funding necessary to initiate comprehensiveand sustainable strategies that address juveniledelinquency and other problem behaviors. ThisReport begins with a review of current trends injuvenile justice and the role Title V plays in theprevention and control of juvenile problem behav-iors. Subsequent chapters review the allocation ofresources provided to date; examine the experiencesof participating States and local communities; anddiscuss how State and Federal efforts coordinate tosupport local delinquency prevention. Reports forprevious years also are available.

Beyond the Walls: Improving Conditions of Confinementfor Youth in Custody (Report). 1998. 128 pp.NCJ 164727. FREE.

Provides tools that juvenile justice advocates andprofessionals can use to enhance conditions of con-finement for detained and incarcerated youth. Dis-cusses six approaches for improving conditions ofconfinement for youth in custody.

Boot Camps for Juvenile Offenders (Summary). 1997.53 pp. NCJ 164258. FREE.

Explores diverse sources of information to addressthe questions, obstacles, and pitfalls that are likely toarise in planning and operating a boot camp for ju-venile offenders. Provides a conceptual frameworkand practical guide for policymakers, correctionsofficials, and service providers who are weighing

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decisions about implementing or expanding juvenileboot camp programs.

Causes and Correlates of Delinquency Program (FactSheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–99100. FREE.

Presents a brief overview of the research designused by the Causes and Correlates projects, whichare designed to improve the understanding ofserious delinquency, violence, and drug use by ex-amining how youth develop within the context offamily, school, peers, and community. The programcomprises three longitudinal projects: the DenverYouth Survey, the Pittsburgh Youth Study, and theRochester Youth Development Study. The Causesand Correlates Program represents a milestone incriminological research because it constitutes thelargest shared-measurement approach ever achievedin delinquency research.

Conditions of Confinement: Juvenile Detention andCorrections Facilities (Summary). 1994. 26 pp.NCJ 141873. FREE.

Reports the findings on conditions in juvenile con-finement facilities, including overcrowding, violence,suicidal behavior, and escapes. Also examines insti-tutional security, treatment programming, education,healthcare, and protection of juveniles’ rights.

Counting What Counts: The Census of Juveniles inResidential Placement (Fact Sheet). 1998. 2 pp. FS–9874. FREE.

Describes the differences between the Census of Pub-lic and Private Juvenile Detention, Shelter, and Cor-rectional Facilities (also known as the Children inCustody or CIC series) and its successor, the Censusof Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) andthe enhanced capabilities the new series provides.OJJDP inaugurated CJRP in 1997. The new censusmeets a pressing need for information that can answera wide variety of questions on juvenile detention,corrections, and placement.

Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Courts, 1996 (Fact Sheet).1999. 2 pp. FS–99109. FREE.

Presents statistics on delinquency cases processedin juvenile courts in 1996. Juvenile courts in theUnited States processed an estimated 1.8 million

delinquency cases in 1996. The number of delin-quency cases handled by juvenile courts increased49 percent between 1987 and 1996. Since 1987, druglaw violation cases have increased 144 percent, per-son offense cases have increased 100 percent, publicorder offense cases have increased 58 percent, andproperty offense cases have increased 23 percent.These estimates are based on data from nearly 1,800courts that had jurisdiction over 67 percent of theU.S. juvenile population. This Fact Sheet is basedon the OJJDP Report, Juvenile Court Statistics 1996.

Delinquency Cases Waived to Criminal Court, 1987–1996(Fact Sheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–9999. FREE.

Presents data from the National Juvenile CourtData Archive on cases transferred from juvenilecourt to criminal court via judicial waiver between1987 and 1996. The profile of cases waived to crimi-nal court changed considerably between 1987 and1996. Prior to 1992, more property offense casesthan person offense cases were waived. In 1996,although waived person offense cases (43 percent)still outnumbered property offense cases (37 per-cent), the gap had closed somewhat. From 1989through 1992, the types of cases most likely to bewaived were drug offense cases, whereas in 1996the types of cases most likely to be waived wereperson offense cases.

Developmental Pathways in Boys’ Disruptive and Delin-quent Behavior (Bulletin). 1997. 20 pp. NCJ 165692.FREE.

Summarizes longitudinal research from the Pitts-burgh Youth Study, which shows that the develop-ment of disruptive and delinquent behavior in boysgenerally takes place in an orderly, progressive fash-ion, with less serious problem behaviors precedingmore serious problem behaviors. The researchersdocumented three developmental pathways thatdisplay progressively more serious problem behavioramong boys in three conceptually different domains:authority conflict, covert actions, and overt actions.

Epidemiology of Serious Violence (Bulletin). 1997. 12 pp.NCJ 165152. FREE.

Presents notable findings from OJJDP’s Programof Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delin-quency three coordinated, longitudinal research

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projects that constitute the largest shared-measurementapproach ever achieved in delinquency research. Atstudy sites in Rochester, NY, Denver, CO, and Pitts-burgh, PA, the three research teams interviewed 4,000participants at regular intervals for nearly a decade,recording their lives in detail.

Female Offenders in the Juvenile Justice System(Summary). 1996. 36 pp. NCJ 160941. FREE.

Analyzes patterns in the arrest, judicial management,and correctional placement of female offenders. Con-tains tables and figures that show the changing profileof female delinquency between 1983 and 1993.

Gang Members and Delinquent Behavior (Bulletin).1997. 6 pp. NCJ 165154. FREE.

Presents findings from the Rochester Youth Develop-ment Study concerning the portion of delinquency inAmerican society that can be attributed to gang mem-bers. Describes OJJDP’s balanced use of preven-tion, intervention, and suppression programs inresponse to the growing gang problem.

Gang Members on the Move (Bulletin). 1998. 12 pp.NCJ 171153. FREE.

Examines whether gang migration has been a majorinfluence in the proliferation of gangs. The emer-gence and growth of gangs in cities once thought tobe free from the violence and crime of larger citieshas led some to believe that migrating gangs or gangmembers are the cause. This Bulletin defines “gang,”“gang proliferation,” and “gang migration”; exploreshow and whether gang migration affects prolifera-tion; and reviews trends reported in research litera-ture. Gang migration patterns in different regions ofthe country are examined and the findings from anational survey are explored.

Gang Membership, Delinquent Peers, and Delinquent Be-havior (Bulletin). 1998. 12 pp. NCJ 171119. FREE.

Describes the findings of OJJDP-funded longitudi-nal research involving juveniles in Seattle, WA, andRochester, NY. This research addressed a funda-mental question: “Does gang membership contributeto delinquency above and beyond the influence ofassociating with delinquent peers?” The answer wasyes in both cities, despite significant differences in

demographics. One implication of these findings isthat communities developing comprehensive ap-proaches to reducing juvenile violence and victim-ization must consider the role of youth gangs andthe necessity of including youth gang prevention,intervention, and suppression components.

Gang Suppression and Intervention: Community Models(Summary). 1994. 34 pp. NCJ 148202. FREE.

Presents a framework for creating promising ap-proaches to reducing the problem of youth gangs.Applies to both chronic and emerging gang prob-lems. Looks at the roles of the family, community,schools, police, courts, and corrections in addressingthe gang problem.

Gang Suppression and Intervention: Problem and Response(Summary). 1994. 32 pp. NCJ 149629. FREE.

Provides initial findings from research on the youthgang problem. Describes a range of institutionalresponses and presents recommendations for prom-ising approaches, policies, and programs.

Guidelines for Screening Care Providers (Fact Sheet).1999. 2 pp. FS–9992. FREE.

Describes the need to implement screening policiesin organizations and programs that care for children,the elderly, and individuals with disabilities. Basicscreening, which includes requiring potential em-ployees or volunteers to fill out a comprehensiveapplication, conducting thorough interviews, andperforming reference checks, is the first step. Addi-tional screening could involve examining criminalrecords and abuse and sex offender registries andperforming alcohol, drug, and psychological tests.Any screening process must be tailored to meet theneeds of the organization using the process.

Highlights of Findings From the Denver Youth Study(Fact Sheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–99106. FREE.

Presents findings from the Denver Youth Study, alongitudinal study of urban youth. The study, one ofthree coordinated projects supported by OJJDPsince 1986 through its Program of Research on theCauses and Correlates of Delinquency, exploredchanges in the nature of delinquency and drug usefrom the 1970’s to the 1990’s. Overall, there was

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little change in the prevalence rates of delinquencyalthough the level of injury from violent offenses in-creased substantially. The relationship between druguse and delinquency has changed; the prevalence ofdrug use decreased substantially, and a smaller per-centage of serious delinquents is using hard drugs.

Highlights of Findings From the Pittsburgh Youth Study(Fact Sheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–9995. FREE.

Presents findings from the Pittsburgh Youth Study,a longitudinal study of 1,517 inner-city boys fromPittsburgh, PA. This study has been followingthree samples of boys for more than a decade toadvance knowledge about how and why boys be-come involved in delinquent and other problembehaviors. One of the important findings to emergefrom the study was that the boys generally devel-oped disruptive and delinquent behavior in anorderly, progressive fashion, with less seriousproblem behaviors preceding more serious problembehaviors.

Highlights of Findings From the Rochester Youth Develop-ment Study (Fact Sheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–99103.FREE.

Presents selected findings from the RochesterYouth Development Study, a longitudinal study of1,000 urban adolescents and 1 of 3 coordinatedprojects supported by OJJDP through its Pro-gram of Research on the Causes and Correlates ofDelinquency. The Rochester study is investigatingthe causes and consequences of adolescent delin-quency and drug use by following a sample ofhigh-risk urban adolescents from their early teen-age years through their early adult years. Thestudy examined family influences on delinquency,school factors, peer influence on behavior, gangmembership and delinquency, structural position,youth involvement with guns, and consequences ofdelinquent behavior.

Highlights of the 1997 National Youth Gang Survey (FactSheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–9997. FREE.

Presents statistics on the prevalence of youth gangsthroughout the country. Gang activity continued toaffect a large number of cities and counties in 1997.However, there was a slight reduction in the number ofjurisdictions reporting active youth gangs compared

with 1996. While the estimated number of gangs andgang members in the Nation decreased slightly, thenumber of gang members in small cities and ruralcounties increased. In 1997, most respondents per-ceived their gang problem was “staying about thesame,” while in 1995 they felt that it was “gettingworse.” The degree of gang member involvement incriminal activity also fell compared with 1996.

How Juveniles Get to Criminal Court (Bulletin). 1994.6 pp. NCJ 150309. FREE.

Presents statistics on the number of juvenilestransferred to adult criminal court through judicialwaiver, prosecutorial discretion, and statutoryexclusion.

In the Wake of Childhood Maltreatment (Bulletin). 1997.16 pp. NCJ 165257. FREE.

Explores the connections between child maltreat-ment and problem behavior as a teen, drawing onthe Rochester Youth Development Study. The Na-tional Committee to Prevent Child Abuse estimatesthat 1 million children suffered maltreatment in theUnited States in 1995 alone. Research indicates thatchildhood maltreatment raises victims’ risk of juve-nile delinquency, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse,and emotional and mental health disorders duringadolescence.

Innovative Community Partnerships: Working Together forChange (Summary). 1994. 40 pp. NCJ 147483.FREE.

Describes strategies employed by Dade County, FL,Lansing, MI, and Norfolk, VA, designed to improvethe quality of life for families and communitiesthrough the integration of community policing andhuman service initiatives.

Intensive Aftercare for High-Risk Juveniles: A CommunityCare Model (Summary). 1994. 20 pp. NCJ 147575.FREE.

Reports the interim findings of OJJDP’s initiativeto assess intensive juvenile aftercare program mod-els for serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offend-ers. Describes the framework for the prototypeproposed for field testing.

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Intensive Aftercare for High-Risk Juveniles: An Assessment(Report). 1994. 210 pp. NCJ 144018. $15.00(U.S.), $19.50 (Canada and other countries).

Presents a review of programs and literature con-cerning juvenile prerelease, transition, reintegration,and aftercare. Includes information on assessmentand classification for risk and need, descriptions ofcommunity- and institution-based programs, and anoverview of theory-driven interventions.

Intensive Aftercare for High-Risk Juveniles: Policies and Proce-dures (Summary). 1994. 38 pp. NCJ 147712. FREE.

Explains the underlying principles and programelements of the intensive aftercare program model,which can be applied in a variety of settings.Addresses organizational factors, case management,and program evaluation.

Juvenile Arrests 1997 (Bulletin). 1998. 12 pp.NCJ 173938. FREE.

Provides a summary and a preliminary analysis ofnational and State juvenile arrest data reported inthe FBI’s November 1998 report, Crime in the UnitedStates—1997. The data show decreases in juvenileviolent crime, despite continuing growth in the juve-nile population. In 1997, for the third year in a row,the total number of juvenile arrests for ViolentCrime Index offenses—murder, forcible rape, rob-bery, and aggravated assault—declined. Between1994 and 1997, juvenile arrests for violent crimedeclined 23 percent. The percentage of violentcrimes cleared by juvenile arrests also has declined.Copies of Juvenile Arrests for previous years also areavailable.

Juvenile Arson, 1997 (Fact Sheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–9991.FREE.

Presents statistics on juvenile arrests for arson. Theoverall arson rate in 1997 was highest in large citiesand lowest in rural areas. In 1997, 20,000 arrestswere made for which the most serious offense wasarson. In 50 percent of these arrests, the person in-volved was under age 18. Arson was the criminaloffense with the greatest portion of juveniles in thearrestee population. More than half (53 percent) ofjuvenile arson cases disposed by the courts in 1996were formally processed.

Juvenile Court Processing of Delinquency Cases, 1986–1995 (Fact Sheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–99101. FREE.

Presents national data on delinquency cases pro-cessed by juvenile courts from 1986 through 1995.Between 1986 and 1995, the delinquency caseloadof U.S. juvenile courts increased 45 percent. Thenumber of cases formally processed by juvenilecourts rose from 554,000 to 938,400 during thistime period, while the number of cases handledinformally (without a petition or court hearing)increased 24 percent. The largest relative changeswere in formal processing of liquor law violationcases and weapons offense cases. Despite increasesin the use of formal processing, the proportion ofdelinquency cases that result in adjudication orwaiver did not change substantially.

Juvenile Court Processing of Delinquency Cases, 1987–1996 (Fact Sheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–99104. FREE.

Presents national data on delinquency cases processedby juvenile courts from 1987 through 1996. Nationalestimates were generated using information from theNational Juvenile Court Data Archive, which gath-ered data from 1,800 jurisdictions containing 67 per-cent of the U.S. juvenile population. Analysis of datafound that more than half of delinquency caseshandled by juvenile courts in 1996 were formally pro-cessed, and the number of formally processed delin-quency cases increased 78 percent between 1987 and1996. In nearly one-third of all delinquency cases re-ferred to juvenile courts, the youth was adjudicateddelinquent or waived to criminal court.

Juvenile Court Property Cases (Bulletin). 1990. 6 pp.NCJ 125625. FREE.

Analyzes property offense referrals to juvenilecourts by nature of offense, disposition, and offendercharacteristics.

Juvenile Court Statistics 1996 (Report). 1999. 113 pp.NCJ 168963. FREE.

Describes delinquency cases and status offensecases handled by U.S. juvenile courts during1996. Serves as a reference guide to helppolicymakers, researchers, and the public tobetter understand the juvenile justice system.Includes detailed tables and figures. Copies of

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Juvenile Court Statistics for previous years alsoare available.

Juvenile Intensive Supervision: Planning Guide (Sum-mary). 1994. 92 pp. NCJ 150065. FREE.

Describes this intermediate sanction program as analternative to secure detention. Provides programcomponents and implementation information formodel programs.

Juvenile Justice Reform Initiatives in the States: 1994–1996 (Report). 1997. 96 pp. NCJ 165697. FREE.

Identifies and analyzes issues and trends associatedwith State juvenile reform initiatives. Provides infor-mation to policymakers on the mechanisms thatStates are using to respond to increased youth vio-lence and delinquency. The Report explores themore punitive measures, such as new criminal courttransfer authority and expanded juvenile court sen-tencing options.

Juvenile Mentoring Program: 1998 Report to Congress(Report). 1998. 65 pp. NCJ 173424. FREE.

Provides an overview of the principles guidingOJJDP’s approach to juvenile crime preventionand the community environment affecting that ap-proach. Describes individual JUMP grants andintervention models implemented in communities,and provides descriptions of the youth being served,their volunteer mentors, and the nature of theirmentoring relationship. Examines initial evaluationfindings and some promising indicators of success,and presents anticipated directions for futurementoring and mentoring-related activities. Positiveoutcomes include reports from mentors and youththat mentoring was a positive experience and thatyouth benefited from the experience, specifically instaying away from alcohol and drugs, avoidingfights and friends who are starting trouble, keepingaway from gangs, and not using guns or knives.

Juvenile Offenders in Residential Placement, 1997 (FactSheet). 1999. 2 pp. FS–9996. FREE.

Presents initial analyses from the 1997 CJRP. Thiscensus collected information on each offender inresidential placement including age, race, sex, andoffense. Information from this Fact Sheet shows that

of the young offenders in residential facilities, themost were minority males who had committedserious personal or property offenses. Two statisticaltables are included.

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1997 Update on Violence(Summary). 1997. 52 pp. NCJ 165703. FREE.

Provides updated information and statistics on juve-nile crime, violence, and victimization, extrapolating1995 data from various reports. Presents complexinformation on juvenile crime using clear, nontechni-cal writing and easy-to-understand graphics andtables. This Summary is an addendum to the 1995Report Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Re-port. Copies of Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 Up-date on Violence also are available.

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A Focus on Violence (Sum-mary). 1995. 40 pp. NCJ 153570. FREE.

Provides information and statistics on crime, vio-lence, and victimization committed by and againstjuveniles, extrapolating 1992 data from various re-ports. Presents complex information on juvenilecrime using clear, nontechnical writing and easy-to-understand graphics and tables. This Summary is anaddendum to the 1995 Report Juvenile Offenders andVictims: A National Report.

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report (Re-port).1995 196 pp. NCJ 153569. FREE.

Synthesizes the most comprehensive information avail-able on juvenile crime, violence, and victimization andthe juvenile justice system. Provides the baseline foranalyzing trends in the growth of the juvenile popula-tion; the rates of juvenile arrests, homicides, suicides,maltreatment, and violent crime victimizations; and thejustice system’s response to juvenile crime.

Juvenile Probation: The Workhorse of the Juvenile JusticeSystem (Bulletin). 1996. 6 pp. NCJ 158534. FREE.

Summarizes the workload problems, agency initia-tives, and special issues of juvenile probation pro-fessionals as reported in the 1992 Juvenile ProbationOfficer Initiative Survey. Describes the probationprofession, the youth it serves, and the issues itfaces, including on-the-job safety, insufficient re-sources, understaffing, and overcrowded caseloads.

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Juvenile Vandalism, 1996 (Fact Sheet). 1998. 2 pp.FS–9885. FREE.

Examines juvenile vandalism arrest data for 1996.Forty-four percent of all arrests for vandalism in1996 were of persons under age 18. The Fact Sheetalso includes data on the formal court processing ofjuvenile vandalism cases.

Juveniles Taken Into Custody: Fiscal Year 1993 (Report).1995. 200 pp. NCJ 154022. FREE.

Summarizes data on the number of juveniles takeninto custody in the United States and presents thelatest developments in creating a new National Ju-venile Corrections Reporting System. Reports forprevious years are also available.

Never Too Early, Never Too Late: Risk Factors and Suc-cessful Interventions for Serious and Violent Juvenile Of-fenders (Report). 1997. Available from the JuvenileJustice Clearinghouse, 800–638–8736.

Offers a comprehensive assessment of research-basedknowledge about serious and violent juvenile offend-ers. The Report tells professionals across the criminaland juvenile justice systems what is known, what pro-grams have been tried, how well they have performed,and what lessons policymakers and practitioners candraw from them. The full findings of the StudyGroup’s research can be found in Serious & ViolentJuvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Successful Interven-tions, edited by R. Loeber and D.P. Farrington, 1998,Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Offenders in Juvenile Court, 1996. (Bulletin). 1999.12 pp. NCJ 175719. FREE.

Presents findings from Juvenile Court Statistics 1996, thelatest in a series of annual reports on cases handled byU.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction. Although courtswith juvenile jurisdiction handle a variety of cases,including abuse, neglect, adoption, and traffic viola-tions, Juvenile Court Statistics reports focus on the dispo-sition of delinquency cases and formally processedstatus offense cases. Juvenile courts in the UnitedStates processed nearly 1.8 million delinquency casesin 1996. This number represented a 3-percent increaseover the 1995 caseload and a 49-percent increase overthe number of cases handled in 1987. Copies of Offend-ers in Juvenile Court for previous years also are available.

OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. 1999. Available atwww.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb.

Provides basic information on juvenile crime andvictimization and on youth involved in the juvenilejustice system. Data in several content areas, suchas population characteristics and juvenile arrests,provide timely, reliable, statistical answers to themost frequently asked questions of policymakers,the media, and the general public.

Prenatal and Early Childhood Nurse Home Visitation(Bulletin). 1998. 8 pp. NCJ 172875. FREE.

Describes the nurse home visitation program andexplains how it successfully reduces the risks forearly development of antisocial behavior and ma-ternal and juvenile offending. Presents evidencedetailing the program’s effectiveness in reducingthe risk for early antisocial behavior and prevent-ing problems associated with youth crime anddelinquency such as child abuse, maternal sub-stance abuse, and maternal criminal involvement.Three of the risk factors associated with earlydevelopment of antisocial behavior can be modi-fied: adverse health-related behaviors duringpregnancy that are associated with children’s neu-ropsychological deficits, child abuse and neglect,and troubled maternal life course.

Promising Strategies To Reduce Gun Violence (Report).1999. 253 pp. NCJ 173950. FREE.

Presents profiles of 60 demonstrated or promisingprograms and strategies that address the problem ofgun violence; examines the nature of the problemfrom a national perspective, including currenttrends; and discusses the process of developing asolution. The profiles briefly describe the type ofprogram, its goals, and the target group and targetarea and give contact information. They are groupedaccording to whether they are comprehensive, inter-rupt sources of illegal guns, deter possession andcarrying, respond to illegal use, or provide for edu-cation initiatives and alternative prevention. ThisOJJDP Report also includes a section on resourcesfor research, technical assistance, and education;geographical and alphabetical program indexes; anda matrix of participating agencies.

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Report to Congress on Juvenile Violence Research (Report).1999. 30 pp. NCJ 176976.

Provides a brief overview of the findings of four newviolence studies examining the causes and correlatesof serious and violent juvenile offending in urban andrural settings, and three existing studies. The four newstudies funded by OJJDP include (1) Studies ofViolence Committed By or Against Juveniles inWashington, DC; (2) Juvenile Violence in Los Angeles;(3) Violence Among Rural Youth; and (4) The Milwau-kee Homicide Study. The existing studies OJJDPcontinued funding include three coordinated longitudi-nal projects, known collectively as the Program of Re-search on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency.

Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders (Bulletin). 1998. 8pp. NCJ 170027. FREE.

Summarizes a Report by the Study Group on Seri-ous and Violent Juvenile Offenders. The Reportprovides valuable insights into the pathways to seri-ous and violent juvenile offending and offers empiri-cal evidence that the key to its reduction lies in earlyprevention efforts aimed at high-risk youth and inter-ventions with these offenders.

State Legislative Responses to Serious and Violent JuvenileCrime (Report). 1996. 78 pp. NCJ 161565. FREE.

Documents and analyzes national changes in thehandling of serious and violent juvenile offendersfrom 1992 to 1995. Implications for policy and prac-tice are offered as considerations for lawmakers andpolicymakers.

State Legislative Responses to Violent Juvenile Crime:1996–97 Update (Bulletin). 1998. 16 pp. NCJ 172835.FREE.

Analyzes State laws enacted in 1996 and 1997 totarget serious and violent juvenile crime. This Bulle-tin highlights trends concerning jurisdictional au-thority, judicial disposition/sentencing authority,corrections programming, confidentiality, and vic-tims of juvenile crime. Seven tables are included.

Strategies To Reduce Gun Violence (Fact Sheet). 1999.2 pp. FS–9993. FREE.

Presents an overview of the findings from theOJJDP Report, Promising Strategies To Reduce Gun

Violence. Drawn from a national s urvey of more than400 local programs, the Report describes 60 strate-gies and programs designed to address gun violence.This Fact Sheet describes common interventionpoints used by promising or innovative programsand lists the communities that are implementingcomprehensive gun violence reduction strategiesacross the United States.

Treating Serious Anti-Social Behavior in Youth: The MSTApproach (Bulletin). 1997. 8 pp. NCJ 165151.FREE.

Highlights evaluations of several programs thathave implemented the multisystemic therapy(MST) approach to the treatment of serious antiso-cial behavior in youth. MST is a home-based ser-vice approach that was developed in response tothe lack of scientifically proven, cost-effectivetreatment. MST focuses on improving psychosocialfunctioning for youth and their families so that theneed for out-of-home child placements is reducedor eliminated.

Trying Juveniles as Adults in Criminal Court: An Analysisof State Transfer Provisions (Report). 1998. 112 pp.NCJ 172836. FREE.

Analyzes the principal statutory mechanisms and crite-ria by which juveniles are placed in the criminal justicesystem at the State level for serious and violent crimes.The Report describes waiver, direct file, statutory ex-clusion, once an adult/always an adult, and reversewaiver provisions. Written by the National Center forJuvenile Justice, the Report is based on State statutesas amended through 1997. Ten tables and an appendixthat summarizes transfer provisions in all 50 States andthe District of Columbia are included.

Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse: Initial Findings(Summary). 1994. 36 pp. NCJ 143454. FREE.

Summarizes preliminary findings of longitudinalresearch on the causes and correlates of juveniledelinquency. Examines the age of onset and preva-lence of delinquency, drug use, and other problembehaviors and youth’s relationships to peers andfamily. Characteristics of effective intervention pro-grams also are described.

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Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse: Technical Report(Report). 1993. 624 pp. NCJ 146416. $25.60(U.S.), $33.40 (Canada and other countries).

Provides a comprehensive description of the findingsfrom the first 3 years of OJJDP’s Program of Re-search on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency.Discusses the research methodology and findings andoffers relevant policy-related observations.

What Works: Promising Interventions in Juvenile Justice(Report). 1994. 258 pp. NCJ 150858. $19.00(U.S.), $26.75 (Canada and other countries).

Contains descriptions of more than 400 juveniledelinquency prevention and treatment programsthroughout the United States. Also includes contactpersons for programs characterized as successful byprofessionals in the field.

The Youngest Delinquents: Offenders Under Age 15(Bulletin). 1997. 12 pp. NCJ 165256. FREE.

Presents the findings of a study that examined re-cent data on juvenile arrests and the delinquencycases processed by U.S. juvenile courts. The datapresented in this Bulletin will enable policymakersand the public to better understand the role thatyounger delinquents play in the overall problem ofjuvenile crime and violence.

The Youth Gangs, Drugs, and Violence Connection(Bulletin). 1999. 12 pp. NCJ 171152. FREE.

Describes the relationships among youth gangs,drugs, and violence. This OJJDP Bulletin, part ofthe Youth Gang Series, provides a historical over-view of gang drug use and trafficking, the currentimage of youth gangs, and policy and program im-plications. Also discussed are connections betweenyouth gangs and adult criminal organizations andthe role of firearms in gang violence.

Youth Gangs: An Overview (Bulletin). 1998. 20 pp.NCJ 167249. FREE.

Gives an overview of the proliferation of youthgangs across the United States, the problems associ-ated with these gangs, and suggestions for programoptions. This Bulletin, the first in OJJDP’s YouthGang Series, addresses the mounting public concernabout the increase in youth gangs. It describes the

changing composition of these gangs, the scope ofthe problem, and the risk factors for youth gangmembership in community, family, school, peergroup, and individual settings.

Products

Easy Access SeriesEasy Access is a family of software packages devel-oped for OJJDP by the National Center for Juve-nile Justice to give a larger audience access torecent, detailed information on juvenile crime andthe juvenile justice system.

Easy Access to FBI Arrest Statistics 1991–1995.

Presents national, State, and county estimates ofjuvenile and adult arrests, rates, and trends for theFBI’s Crime Index offenses; 27 different tables forevery State and county in the United States are pro-vided. Results can be saved to a print file for easyinsertion in other documents.

Easy Access to the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report1980–1996.

Explores variations and trends in State and nationalhomicide victim and offender profiles. Immediateanswers to questions about age, sex, race, weaponuse, and victim-offender relationship are given. Re-sults are presented in tabular and graphic formatsand can be stored in output files that are easily readby spreadsheet or word processing packages.

Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics 1987–1996.

Enables researchers, students, and juvenile justiceprofessionals to analyze the large database that un-derlies the annual Juvenile Court Statistics reports.Demographic, offense, and case processing variablesare included, allowing users to develop detailed de-scriptions of the delinquency cases processed in theNation’s juvenile courts. Data are presented in tabu-lar and graphic formats that can be saved to outputfiles for use in word processing and spreadsheetapplications.

Share With Your ColleaguesUnless otherwise noted, OJJDP publications are not copyright protected. We en-courage you to reproduce this document, share it with your colleagues, and reprint itin your newsletter or journal. However, it you reprint, please cite OJJDP and anyother authors found on the title page. We are also interested in your feedback, suchas how you received a copy, how you intend to use the information, and how OJJDPmaterials meet your individual or agency needs. Please direct your comments andquestions to:

Juvenile Justice ClearinghousePublication Reprint/FeedbackP.O. Box 6000Rockville, MD 20849–6000800–638–8736301–519–5212 (Fax)E-Mail: askncjrs@ncjrs.org

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Need technical assistance? Please send an e-mail to askncjrs@ncjrs.org.

JUVJUST–OJJDP’s E-Mail Information ResourceDiscover JUVJUST and access the latest juvenile justice information from the Office

of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the field, including announcements ofnewly released publications, grants and funding opportunities, and upcoming conferences.

Announcements are posted by OJJDP several times a week.

● About OJJDP. Learn about OJJDP—how the agency is organized, what legislation authorized its formation, and

how to contact staff members.

● Juvenile Justice Facts & Figures. Secure the latest facts and figures on juvenile justice, delinquency

prevention, and violence and victimization.

● Highlights. Discover time-sensitive opportunities, new features to the Web site, and new sources of information.

● Grants & Funding. Explore funding opportunities from OJJDP and other agencies.

● Resources. Share with and build on the experiences of individuals, agencies, and organizations in your

community.

● Programs. Learn about the design and implementation of OJJDP programs.

● Publications. Access youth-focused publications and other resources.

● Calendar of Events. Visit our calendar for upcoming OJJDP-sponsored and other youth-focused conferences.

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JUVJUST is a free service that is available to anyone with Internet e-mail.Subscribe now by completing the following steps:

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Publications From OJJDPOJJDP produces a variety of publications—Fact Sheets, Bulletins, Summaries, Reports,and the Juvenile Justice journal—along withvideotapes, including broadcasts from the juve-nile justice telecommunications initiative.Through OJJDP’s Juvenile Justice Clearing-house (JJC), these publications and other re-sources are as close as your phone, fax,computer, or mailbox.Phone:800–638–8736(Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m. ET)Fax:301–519–5212Online:

OJJDP Home Page:www.ojjdp.ncjrs.orgE-Mail:puborder@ncjrs.org (to order materials)askncjrs@ncjrs.org (to ask questionsabout materials)

Mail:Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse/NCJRSP.O. Box 6000, Rockville, MD 20849–6000Fact Sheets and Bulletins are also availablethrough Fax on demand.Fax on Demand:800–638–8736, select option 1, select option 2,and listen for instructionsTo ensure timely notice of new publications,subscribe to JUVJUST, OJJDP’s electronicmailing list.JUVJUST Mailing List:e-mail to listproc@ncjrs.orgleave the subject line blanktype subscribe juvjust your nameIn addition, JJC, through the National CriminalJustice Reference Service (NCJRS), is therepository for tens of thousands of criminal andjuvenile justice publications and resources fromaround the world. They are abstracted andmade available through a database, which issearchable online (www.ncjrs.org/database.htm). You are also welcome to submitmaterials to JJC for inclusion in the database.The following list highlights popular and re-cently published OJJDP documents and video-tapes, grouped by topical areas.The Office of Juvenile Justice and DelinquencyPrevention Brochure (1996, NCJ 144527 (23pp.)) offers more information about the agency.The OJJDP Publications List (BC000115) offersa complete list of OJJDP publications and isalso available online.OJJDP sponsors a teleconference initiative,and a flyer (LT 116) offers a complete list ofvideos available from these broadcasts.

Corrections and DetentionBeyond the Walls: Improving Conditions ofConfinement for Youth in Custody. 1998,NCJ 164727 (116 pp.).Boot Camps for Juvenile Offenders. 1997,NCJ 164258 (42 pp.).Disproportionate Minority Confinement: 1997Update. 1998, NCJ 170606 (12 pp.).Juvenile Arrests 1996. 1997, NCJ 167578(12 pp.).Juvenile Court Statistics 1995. 1998,NCJ 170607 (112 pp.).

CourtsOffenders in Juvenile Court, 1995. 1997,NCJ 167885 (12 pp.).RESTTA National Directory of Restitutionand Community Service Programs. 1998,NCJ 166365 (500 pp.), $33.50.Youth Courts: A National Movement Telecon-ference (Video). 1998, NCJ 171149 (120 min.),$17.00.

Delinquency Prevention1997 Report to Congress: Title V IncentiveGrants for Local Delinquency PreventionPrograms. 1998, NCJ 170605 (71 pp.).Allegheny County, PA: Mobilizing To ReduceJuvenile Crime. 1997, NCJ 165693 (12 pp.).Combating Violence and Delinquency: TheNational Juvenile Justice Action Plan (Report).1996, NCJ 157106 (200 pp.).Combating Violence and Delinquency: TheNational Juvenile Justice Action Plan (Sum-mary). 1996, NCJ 157105 (36 pp.).Mentoring—A Proven Delinquency PreventionStrategy. 1997, NCJ 164834 (8 pp.).Mentoring for Youth in Schools and Communi-ties Teleconference (Video). 1997, NCJ 166376(120 min.), $17.00.Mobilizing Communities To Prevent JuvenileCrime. 1997, NCJ 165928 (8 pp.).Reaching Out to Youth Out of the EducationMainstream. 1997, NCJ 163920 (12 pp.).Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders. 1998,NCJ 170027 (8 pp.).Treating Serious Anti-Social Behavior in Youth:The MST Approach. 1997, NCJ 165151 (8 pp.).The Youngest Delinquents: Offenders UnderAge 15. 1997, NCJ 165256 (12 pp.).

GangsGang Members and Delinquent Behavior. 1997,NCJ 165154 (6 pp.).Youth Gangs: An Overview. 1998, NCJ 167249(20 pp.).Youth Gangs in America Teleconference(Video). 1997, NCJ 164937 (120 min.), $17.00.

General Juvenile JusticeComprehensive Juvenile Justice in StateLegislatures Teleconference (Video). 1998,NCJ 169593 (120 min.), $17.00.Developmental Pathways in Boys’ Disruptiveand Delinquent Behavior. 1997, NCJ 165692(20 pp.).Exciting Internships: Work Today for a BetterTomorrow. 1998, NCJ 171696 (6 pp.).Guidelines for the Screening of Persons Work-ing With Children, the Elderly, and IndividualsWith Disabilities in Need of Support. 1998,NCJ 167248 (52 pp.).Juvenile Justice, Volume III, Number 2. 1997,NCJ 165925 (32 pp.).Juvenile Justice, Volume IV, Number 2. 1997,NCJ 166823 (28 pp.).Juvenile Justice, Volume V, Number 1. 1998,NCJ 170025 (32 pp.).Juvenile Justice Reform Initiatives in the States1994–1996. 1997, NCJ 165697 (81 pp.).A Juvenile Justice System for the 21st Century.1998, NCJ 169726 (8 pp.).Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1997 Updateon Violence. 1997, NCJ 165703 (32 pp.).

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A NationalReport. 1995, NCJ 153569 (188 pp.).Keeping Young People in School: CommunityPrograms That Work. 1997, NCJ 162783(12 pp.).Sharing Information: A Guide to the FamilyEducational Rights and Privacy Act andParticipation in Juvenile Justice Programs.1997, NCJ 163705 (52 pp.).

Missing and Exploited ChildrenCourt Appointed Special Advocates: A Voicefor Abused and Neglected Children in Court.1997, NCJ 164512 (4 pp.).Federal Resources on Missing and ExploitedChildren: A Directory for Law Enforcement andOther Public and Private Agencies. 1997,NCJ 168962 (156 pp.).In the Wake of Childhood Maltreatment. 1997,NCJ 165257 (16 pp.).Portable Guides to Investigating Child Abuse:An Overview. 1997, NCJ 165153 (8 pp.).Protecting Children Online Teleconference(Video). 1998, NCJ 170023 (120 min.), $17.00.When Your Child Is Missing: A Family SurvivalGuide. 1998, NCJ 170022 (96 pp.).

Substance AbuseBeyond the Bench: How Judges Can Help Re-duce Juvenile DUI and Alcohol and Other DrugViolations (Video and discussion guide). 1996,NCJ 162357 (16 min.), $17.00.Capacity Building for Juvenile SubstanceAbuse Treatment. 1997, NCJ 167251 (12 pp.).The Coach’s Playbook Against Drugs. 1998,NCJ 173393 (20 pp.).Drug Identification and Testing in the JuvenileJustice System. 1998, NCJ 167889 (92 pp.).Juvenile Offenders and Drug Treatment:Promising Approaches Teleconference (Video).1997, NCJ 168617 (120 min.), $17.00.Preventing Drug Abuse Among Youth Telecon-ference (Video). 1997, NCJ 165583 (120 min.),$17.00.

Violence and VictimizationChild Development–Community Policing:Partnership in a Climate of Violence. 1997,NCJ 164380 (8 pp.).Combating Fear and Restoring Safety inSchools. 1998, NCJ 167888 (16 pp.).Epidemiology of Serious Violence. 1997,NCJ 165152 (12 pp.).Guide for Implementing the ComprehensiveStrategy for Serious, Violent, and ChronicJuvenile Offenders. 1995, NCJ 153681(255 pp.).Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders: RiskFactors and Successful Interventions Telecon-ference (Video). 1998, NCJ 171286 (120 min.),$17.00.State Legislative Responses to Violent JuvenileCrime: 1996–97 Update. 1998, NCJ 172835(16 pp.).White House Conference on School Safety:Causes and Prevention of Youth ViolenceTeleconference (Video). 1998, NCJ 173399(240 min.), $17.00.

Youth in ActionPlanning a Successful Crime PreventionProject. 1998, NCJ 170024 (28 pp.).

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