Weekly News Brief

Bulletins Highlight Evaluation of OJJDP?s Gang Reduction Program; Substance Use Among Juvenile Offenders — The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention recently released two bulletins. The first bulletin, Findings From the Evaluation of OJJDP?s Gang Reduction Program, discusses an independent evaluation conducted by researchers from the Urban Institute. The Gang Reduction Program is a $10 million, multiyear initiative to reduce crime associated with youth street gangs in Los Angeles, Calif.; Milwaukee, Wis.; North Miami Beach, Fla.; and Richmond, Va. The evaluation includes a discussion of the sites? progress in building partnerships, reaching a consensus understanding of local gang problems, cultivating social service providers, and planning to sustain anti-gang activities. In the second bulletin, Substance Use and Delinquent Behavior Among Serious Offenders, the authors present key findings of a seven-year study conducted by the Pathways to Desistance research team. The researchers followed 1,354 young offenders in Philadelphia, Penn., and Maricopa County, Ariz., after their conviction, collecting comprehensive data on their offending and their lives. The authors report on the link between adolescent substance use and serious offending and note that substance use and offending at one age is a consistent predictor of continued serious offending at a later age; substance use and serious offending fluctuate in similar patterns over time; and both decrease in late adolescence.
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/230106.pdf
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/232790.pdf

A Tale of Three Cities: Drugs, Courts and Community Justice — The Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Center for Court Innovation have released this new publication that outlines how community courts in three locations—Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Orange County, Calif.—are combining elements of drug courts and community courts to respond to the needs of defendants and their communities. https://bja.gov/pdf/CCI_Tale_3_Cities.pdf

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