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Beginning in the late 1980s, the number of girls entering the juvenile justice system increased dramatically. Although historically girls had entered the justice system with status offenses, recent examinations suggest a sharp rise in the number of girls charged with more serious crimes. Researchers and policy makers have increasingly acknowledged the need for a gender-specific approach, which has prompted the development of gender-responsive theories, strategies, and programming to specifically address female delinquency. This article focuses on an evaluation of a gender-specific intervention and examines factors that contribute to its efficacy. More specifically, the current article explores the provision and completion of services by girls in the Reaffirming Young Sisters' Excellence Program, paying particular attention to variations by race and ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing attention on gender-specific programming for girls involved in the juvenile justice system, not much is known about the effectiveness of gender-specific programs. The authors review the evidence base for the effectiveness of programs for girls in custody or under supervision by examining the evaluation evidence for nine gender-specific programs (which exclusively target girls) and six gender-non-specific programs (which target both girls and boys). Through this process, the authors summarize the evidence of effectiveness available to researchers and practitioners, identify barriers to determining what programs work for adjudicated girls, and make recommendations for building a solid evidence base on what works for adjudicated girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Preventing and Reducing Juvenile Delinquency, Howell proposes a femalespecific pathway to serious, violent, and chronic offending. Incorporating ideas from feminist research about risk factors for female delinquency, he proposes five distinct and interrelated risk factors—child abuse victimization, mental health problems, running away, gang involvement, and juvenile justice involvement—as those that lead to serious, violent, and chronic offending for girls. This study is an exploration of Howell's hypothesis, assessing the independent effect of the suggested risk factors on girls' and boys' involvement in serious, violent, and chronic offending. The sample consists of 10,405 youths, one third of whom are females, who were referred to a metropolitan juvenile court in Texas and tracked in official records from 1997 to 2003. This large sample allows for robust statistical analysis of the independent effect of the risk factors on serious, violent, and chronic offending by gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy makers and juvenile justice officials express alarm over the rise in arrests of girls for simple and aggravated assault. Others see this perceived increase as an artifact of decreased public tolerance for violence, changes in parental attitudes or law enforcement policies, or heightened surveillance of domestic violence, which disproportionately affects girls. The author contends that the social construction of girls' violence may reflect policy changes in the juvenile justice system itself, especially the deinstitutionalization of status offenders. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act deinstitutionalization mandates encouraged "bootstrapping" or "relabeling" female status offenders as delinquents to retain access to facilities in which to confine "incorrigible" girls. The author analyzes data on changes in arrest patterns and confinement for boys and girls charged with simple and aggravated assault, arguing that differences in rates, victims, and confinement for "violent" boys and girls support a relabeling interpretation of the supposed rise in girls' violence consistent with the social construction thesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report the results of latent class analyses and latent class transition analyses of antisocial behavior risk factors among 137 youths participating in a juvenile diversion program. The study examined the youths' latent classifications using baseline and 1-year follow-up measures of family, peer, education, and mental health risk factors. Latent class transition analyses were conducted to determine the stability and change of latent class membership across two time points. For both baseline and follow-up measures, latent class analyses suggested that two latent classes were most appropriate for characterizing the youths using the four domains of risk factors. One class reflected youths reporting few problems in any risk area; the second class reflected youths reporting problems in many of the risk domains. The latent class transition analyses indicated that about two thirds of the youths experienced similar problems over time. The results emphasize the heterogeneity of this study's sample. Policy implications and intervention service needs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines issues raised by the application of a generic actuarial juvenile risk instrument (the Model Risk Assessment Instrument) to New York City, a context different from the one in which it was developed. It describes practical challenges arising from the constraints of locally available data and local sensibilities and highlights important differences between locally relevant recidivism predictors and generic tool predictors. The analysis shows that the generic tool is less predictive than a locally developed risk-assessment tool and also performs less well than unassisted clinical judgment. This is true even after the generic tool has been validated and optimized on local data. This is because the tool does not include key demo- graphic variables relevant to the New York City context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines how the juvenile justice system needs to operate to effectively reduce juvenile crime and victimization in the United States. Objectives of an effective juvenile justice system; Elements of the effective system; Strategies for the implementation of an effective juvenile justice system; Conclusions.

Presents an assessment of the Neutral Zone, a community-based gang prevention and intervention developed in Mountlake Terrace and now operating in several other Washington communities. Provision of viable recreational social service activities for youths in the area.

Investigates the effectiveness of the Community Corrections Partnership Program of Cincinnati, Ohio in preventing recidivism among Afro-American juvenile felons. Statistical analysis of predictors of recidivism; Background of the program.

Focuses on a study which explored the relationship between mother's age at the birth of her first child, and her children's delinquency. Background on the theoretical framework and issues; Data and measurement; Results and discussion; Discussion on delinquency prevention policy; Recommendations for further studies.

Comments on a study which assessed the generalizability of the delinquency suppression effect measures. Discussion on the analysis of the deterrent effects of institutionalization; Policy implications; Arguments on the research findings.

This article selectively examines a legendary experiment in community-based delinquency prevention during the 1930s and 1940s, the Chicago Area Project (CAP). The CAP embodied the first systematic challenge by sociologists to the dominance of psychology and psychiatry in public and private programs for the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency in the early 20th century. While scholars generally recognize the CAP as a pioneer effort in delinquency prevention, we know remarkably little about its operational schema and day-to-day activities in individual Chicago communities. Prior studies have examined the CAP primarily as an episode in the history of changing ideas about crime causation, and as an important skirmish in ongoing ideological battles between sociologists and psycholoists on the proper focus of correctional treatment. By contrast, this article provides the first systematic, empirical study of the CAP in action in its early years. We focus on the very first and, it would appear, the most successful of the three pioneer "corn reunify committees" the CAP organized to launch its novel approach to "social treatment," that in the Russell Square neighborhood of South Chicago. Our analysis derives primarily from two bountiful sets of previously unused archival records which detail the work of the Russell Square Community Committee (RSCC): the Chicago Area Project Records, located in the Chicago Historical Society, and the Stephen S. Bubacz Papers, located in the Special Collections Department, University of Illinois at Chicago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses a research on juvenile delinquency prevention attempts in the U.S. as of April, 1978. Increase in the number of arrested young people; Use of psychotherapy and various prevention techniques; Information on programs launched aiming to control and prevent delinquency; Recommendations for delinquency prevention projects.