NCJ Number
196952
Journal
In Session Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: Spring 2002 Pages: 1,6
Date Published
2002
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article reports on the recently completed 3 year, four-site evaluation of teen courts for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)within the United States Department of Justice, for release and presentation in April 2002 at the National Youth Conference.
Abstract
OJJDP funded the Evaluation of Teen Courts Project to begin the process of collecting research evidence about the effectiveness of teen courts. More than 500 youth from Alaska, Arizona, Missouri, and Maryland were studied from 1998 to 1999 for a minimum of 6 months after their referral to teen court, and their recidivism was compared with an equal number of first-time offenders who had been charged with similar offenses but handled in the traditional juvenile justice system. All jurisdictions in the study used all four of the courtroom models typically employed by teen courts and youth courts across the United States, with two programs using a combination of the adult court and peer jury models, one using the youth tribunal model, and one using the youth judge model. Early findings, prior to release of recidivism results, indicated that youth and their parents voiced strong support for youth court, even after having recently appeared in youth court and being given their sentences. Across all four of the programs, more than 90 percent of youth and 90 percent of their parents said they were happy they were able to go to youth court rather than a traditional court. In conclusion, it is noted that more detailed results, including recidivism findings, will be featured in the Summer 2002 issue of In Session.