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This study investigated authoritarian personality, ethnicity, and religiosity as predictors of educational instructors’ authority-exercising style in disciplinary encounters in juvenile correctional institutions. Participants were all 320 educational instructors from all 56 juvenile correctional institutions in Israel. Research findings indicated that educational instructors with a high level of authoritarianism responded with more power assertion and withdrawal during disciplinary encounters, whereas instructors with a low level of authoritarianism responded with induction during these events. In addition, ethnicity and level of religiosity predicted exercising of authority. Arab as well as Jewish religious instructors were more inclined to respond with power assertion during disciplinary encounters. The present study attempts to interconnect personality and environmental and behavioral characteristics and calls for follow-up research on educational instructors’ behaviors in juvenile correctional institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explains the role of strategic litigation to improve the educational background and quality of life for youth and children who are incarcerated and deprived from quality education in juvenile correctional facilities.

This multi-phasic, qualitative study explored the perceptions and provision of research-based reading instruction in the juvenile correctional facility setting. In three settings in two states, we interviewed students (n = 17), teachers (n = 5), and administrators (n = 3); and conducted two focus groups (n = 8), student surveys (n = 49), and seven observations of reading instruction. Our purposes were to (a) examine students' perceptions of themselves as readers, (b) their perceptions regarding the importance of reading, and (c) the reading practices implemented with juvenile offenders. Findings suggest that a majority of incarcerated students view reading as an important skill, but there is a large disparity in the amount and type of reading instruction they are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The system of the juvenile criminal law in the Republic of Serbia includes different mechanisms of social response to juvenile delinquency, including corrective orders, corrective measures and juvenile prison. This paper deals with the issue of determining a relevant sentence for juvenile offenders in trial proceedings. The legislator has provided a number of guidelines for these proceedings: the specific range of the juvenile prison sentence, the purpose of punishment, the degree of maturity of a juvenile offender, the time needed for his/her educational and vocational training, and all relevant circumstances envisaged in Article 54 of the Criminal Code. The previous statement reveals the focal points of examination and structural organization in this article, whose purpose is twofold: first, to explain the effect of the subject-specific legal provisions (aggravating and mitigating circumstances) envisaged in the Act on Juvenile Criminal Offenders and Protection of Juveniles in Criminal Law and, second, to establish how the general provisions from the Criminal Code are applied in this case, with special emphasis on their specific manifestations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the ways in which child welfare, adolescent mental health and juvenile justice service providers engage in processes of responsibilisation. Drawing on qualitative data gathered from service files of youth receiving concurrent services from child welfare, corrections and mental health services, this article will discuss how a neoliberal approach to service is reflected in the case notes of front line staff. Analysis reveals an overarching reliance on discourses of youth responsibilisation in the service files, where the risks which young people are exposed to were perceived as rational choices rather than contextual factors that needed to be accounted for in case management and service plans. Front line workers discussed case plans in terms of youth being willing or unwilling, compliant or non-compliant with regard to programming. This view of youth as autonomous actors had repercussions for youth who did not present as ‘co-operative’ and ‘mature’. The article concludes with a reflection on the role of services in the lives of vulnerable youth and implications for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of physical restraint with children in penal custody has been the source of widespread concern following the restraint-related deaths of two teenage boys in 2004. Eleven years later, deep disquiet remains. Drawing upon empirical research conducted in an English young offender institution, this article assesses the key problems associated with the use of restraint and the extent to which forthcoming reforms will address the identified concerns. It argues that, thus far, the treatment of child prisoners has not given appropriate recognition to the status of the child prisoner as a child and independent rights holder with the effect that physical restraint has been used inappropriately, routinely and, in the worst cases, unlawfully, exposing children to harm. Notwithstanding the intended reforms, further legislative, policy and systemic change is required to give primacy to the status of child prisoners as children and fulfil the State's obligations under international human rights law. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article provides a historical analysis of the principles, understandings, and laws which formed and altered the American juvenile correction system. Topics discussed include development and early failures of the American juvenile correction system, the history of juvenile waiver laws, and the constitutional results of increased juvenile waiver legislation.

Many youth who are incarcerated within juvenile correctional facilities experience mental health disorders, histories of victimization and suicide ideation. Strengths-based intervention programmes are intended to enhance participants' resilience against such challenges. However, little is known about how the composition of intervention groups contributes to programmes' efficacy. This study addresses the impact of within-group similarity on the success of a strengths-based intervention for incarcerated young men (n = 141). Similarity was assessed in terms of self-reported demographics and behaviours and belief systems. Youths' masculine ideology, caring and cooperative behaviours, ethnic pride and respect for differences, self-efficacy regarding education and non-violence, and attitudes about criminal behaviour were measured before and after intervention. Results indicate that participants' caring and cooperative behaviour increased during the intervention. However, their education-related self-efficacy was reduced, and the perceived benefits of criminal activity increased. These changes were moderated by group composition: less similarity between participants and their group members was associated with less negative change. In the context of juvenile corrections facilities, where staying the same may be a relatively positive outcome, perhaps the more relevant question is not which processes and characteristics of others better enable youth to change but which experiences help them retain positive aspects of themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the majority opinion of State v. Diaz, the South Dakota Supreme Court held that the confession of a fifteen-year-old was knowingly and intelligently made. The majority focused on the eventual, albeit flawed, reading of Diaz's Miranda rights in Spanish and Diaz's "sneaky " personality. The dissent written by Justice Konenkamp, on the other hand, classified Diaz's waiver as failing to meet the threshold of being knowingly and intelligently made under the totality of the circumstances. The dissent's evaluation of the totality of the circumstances focused on the police's deception of both Diaz and her mother and the differential treatment that should be afforded to children. This casenote argues that the dissent was correct in its characterization of the waiver, and that the confession should have been suppressed for each of three reasons: (1) under the totality of the circumstances, Diaz's waiver was not knowingly and intelligently made even for an adult; (2) children should be afforded more protections when waiving their rights than adults, but Diaz was not afforded these additional protections; and (3) the deception by the police when obtaining consent from Diaz's mother, coupled with the violation of statutes designed for Diaz's protection, alone should have resulted in a suppressed confession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay summarizes lessons learned from the study of the structured decision-making tool of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ) called Dispositional Matrix. Topics discussed include the major components of the Dispositional Matrix that guide juvenile probation officers in their court recommendations. Also discussed are the major policy implications of the findings of the study for the FDJJ.

Four well-known delinquency intervention and prevention programs remain both publicly and politically popular regardless of a large body of evidence-based research revealing their ineffectiveness in promoting a lasting desistance from youth violence and crime. Scared straight programs, Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.), youth boot camps, and secure large-scale, custodial juvenile correctional facilities overemphasize offender “risk management and maintenance” as opposed to individual, group-based, and/or collective well-being. This article will identify the values that these current and dominant community-centered youth justice initiatives reflect, and it will explain how these values further (or forestall) offender desistance. Viable, evidence-based alternatives consistent with the value orientation of therapeutic and restorative programming will also be evaluated. The article concludes by examining the efficacy of this alternative normative agenda to foster successful desistance from juvenile delinquency and crime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Youth in juvenile corrections settings have significant academic, behavioral, and mental health needs. Additionally, a disproportionate percentage of them are identified with a diagnosed disability, with Emotional Disturbance (ED) as the most common diagnosis. Despite these facts, appropriate education and intensive mental health care is often lacking in these settings. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that some facilities use methods such as disciplinary confinement as a response to behavioral infractions; a practice that is not only counterproductive to rehabilitation, but violates federal education law and established legal standards. This study examined the use of disciplinary confinement in a juvenile justice system and investigated factors associated with frequency of this practice and time spent in disciplinary confinement. Participants were 2,353 youth with and without identified disabilities at state-run juvenile corrections facilities. Results indicated that students with disabilities spent considerably more time in disciplinary confinement than students without disabilities. Students with ED spent considerably more time than students in other disability categories and students without disabilities. Additionally, Black students, Black students with ED, and Hispanic students with ED spent considerably more time in disciplinary seclusion than other groups. The authors discuss results with respect to disproportionate use of disciplinary confinement and provide subsequent recommendations including the reexamination of disciplinary confinement practices by leaders in juvenile corrections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a historical analysis of the principles and laws that have formed and changed the U.S. juvenile correction system as of 2014, and it mentions the criminal culpability of juvenile offenders, as well as American common law and the history of juvenile waiver laws. A nineteenth-century juvenile correction reformation movement is examined, along with U.S. Supreme Court cases and the historical aspects of juvenile justice in the country.

Probation is the most common disposition for adjudicated youth, but little is known about which specific requirements are commonly imposed on juveniles, the requirements with which juveniles most often fail to comply, and how certain youth characteristics and/or imposed requirements might relate to probation noncompliance. An investigation of 120 archived files of youth represented by an urban public defender's office identified 29 probation requirements imposed on youth and 18 requirements with which youth commonly failed to comply. Results revealed that 52% of youth failed to comply with at least one probation requirement; prior probation noncompliance and race were both significantly associated with noncompliance in the examined probation disposition. In addition, the probability of probation noncompliance was significantly higher when youth received either of two substance-related probation requirements: drug tests or drug and alcohol counseling. Such results may prompt further investigation of juvenile probation-related predictors, identify areas of need for clinical service provision to foster successful completion of probation requirements, and help identify areas of potential biases among juvenile court personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Inside a juvenile detention center in northeastern Brazil, inmates discussed and performed their manhood in compliance with a stereotyped local model of masculinity that equated manliness with aggression, fearlessness, and virility. But unlike the male subjects portrayed in recent anthropological studies of masculinity, these youths did not understand their manhood to be primarily configured in opposition to femininity. In fact, when adolescent detainees pronounced themselves to be men-or to be, as was more often the case, sujeito-homens (man-subjects)-they did so without reference to women, sexual activity, or sexual organs. Instead, they asserted their manhood by committing (or attempting to commit) murder: an act deliberately intended to deny the perpetrator's belonging to either the social or the legal category of the child. While juvenile justice professionals often interpreted such acts of aggression as expressions of innate criminal character, I argue that the murders and violent attacks that occurred in the juvenile detention center can be better understood as performative acts through which inmates sought to shore up and affirm their autonomy, accomplishments, and manhood in the face of juvenile justice laws and policies that refused to recognize them as anything but children. [ violence, gender performativity, children, crime, masculinity] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job morale is often mentioned in literature on correctional staff, but its antecedents have seldom been investigated. In this study, survey data were collected from 975 facility and community staff working for the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice to determine the relationship of personal characteristics (educational level, gender, race, tenure, and age) and workplace variables (input into decision-making, job stress, organizational communication, perceptions of coworkers, workplace cooperation, and public support) with job morale. Type of staff (community or facility) had a non-significant association with job morale. In multivariate analyses controlling for nested data, educational level, race, tenure, age, input into decision-making, organizational fairness, perceptions of coworkers, and workplace cooperation each had a positive relationship with morale, while job stress had a negative association. Workplace variables accounted for far greater variance in the job morale variable than did personal characteristics, which holds implications for efforts to improve correctional staff morale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reports on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the "Miller v. Alabama," case in which the Court held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. Topics discussed include law concerning life without parole (LWOP) sentences for juveniles, increasing concern of juveniles' different treatments; and the Eighth Amendment inquiry to proportionality principles.

The article discusses the reform in California's juvenile justice practice and policies. Topics discussed include decision of the California Court of Appeal in the "Farrell v. Beard" case involving California's juvenile justice; creation of the California Youth Authority (CYA) as state youth corrections facilities; and the state Treatment Intervention and Behavioral Treatment Program (BTP) for juvenile justice administration.

Those advocating mixed methods research have long believed that ethnographic methods can strengthen quantitative data. This paper explores some practical and philosophical issues through considering a study that seeks to explain differences in detention rates between children’s courts in three Australian states (Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales), primarily through observing sentencing hearings. It starts by considering whether the lower rate in Victoria indicates that magistrates are more lenient or, alternatively, that young people commit fewer offences in this state. The paper demonstrates, through comparing cases with similar features, that Victoria is more tolerant. Qualitative research can also suggest ways of developing a quantitative analysis by identifying significant potential differences within states and between decision makers. The paper also considers the strengths and limitations of court culture as an explanatory causal variable, and the alternative approach to comparison suggested by the interpretive tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to examine the relationship between correctional orientation (support for rehabilitation or punishment) and organizational citizenship behaviors (going above and beyond what is expected at work). All available staff at a Midwestern, high-security prison that housed juvenile offenders sentenced as adults were surveyed. Regression results suggest that correctional orientation does have a direct impact on organizational citizenship. Those staff indicating greater support for rehabilitation were more likely to report engagement in organizational citizenship behaviors. Support for punishment, however, had a nonsignificant association. Even among custody staff (i.e., correctional officers) and staff who spent half or more of their day interacting with inmates, support for rehabilitation had a significant positive association with organizational behaviors and support for punishment was not a significant predictor. In addition to the benefits of increased support for rehabilitation, such as better inmate relations, job satisfaction, and lower job stress, the current results suggest that another benefit of increasing support for rehabilitation among staff could result in greater engagement in organizational citizenship behaviors. Correctional administrators should explore different ways to promote support for rehabilitation among staff. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The concept of adolescent development has become a relevant consideration for researchers interested in juvenile delinquency. However, the integration of constructs from developmental psychology into delinquency research is still in its early stages. This article argues that it is time to move beyond description of adolescent antisocial activities and to integrate developmental activities into delinquency research as mediators or moderators. Relevant examples of such an approach are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis is a chronic disease that may lead to various consequences for patients and caregivers, especially in relation to sleep quality. Sleep is an essential process for homeostasis of the organism. In general, caregivers of children with JIA are more susceptible to these sleep disorders and a lower quality of life. This impairment in sleep can potentially affect the health of caregiver. For this reason, it is very important to continue to evaluate the quality of sleep in caregivers and how to support these JIA children's caregivers more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes one of the newest, most specialised law enforcement programmes in the United States: Crisis Intervention Teams (CITs) for youth with mental illness. In response to the fragmentation of behavioural healthcare services in the educational, juvenile justice and mental health systems, Juvenile- CITs (J-CITs) have been implemented in a handful of jurisdictions to serve as an intervention for troubled and troublesome adolescents in need of mental health care. Information about J-CITs is limited; little has been written about such programmes, and no published studies have examined their effectiveness. Hence the present study was undertaken to identify all of the currently operational J-CITs in the United States. We conducted structured telephone interviews in order to gather qualitative data regarding the philosophy, origins, operations and components of each J-CIT. We afford an early look at several J-CIT programmes in diverse geographic areas. We conclude with observations concerning the role of such programmes in a law enforcement as well as the challenges that police departments are likely to face in the implementation and maintenance of such initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) within the schools of the Texas juvenile correctional system. Topics discussed include effectiveness of PBIS in modifying behavior in public schools, creation of Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) to monitor juvenile system, and the history of juvenile probation and its relationship to the judiciary.

This study sought to investigate differences in body mass index (BMI) across adolescent groups taking different classes of psychotropic medications in juvenile correctional settings. Results indicate significant (p< 0.05) differences in BMI for committed adolescents (mean BMI Z score = 0.95) versus detained (mean BMI Z score = 0.75) youth. Juveniles taking antipsychotic medications are at increased risk for elevated BMI (Cohen’sd= 0.72). There is no relationship to psychotropic medication classes and BMI, suggesting type versus total number of medications explains this relationship. Clinical implications are discussed, with specific emphasis on populations who may be at increased risk for obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Metamorphic remodeling of the nervous system and its organization in juvenile may shed light on early steps of evolution and can be used as an important criterion for establishing the relationships among large groups of animals. The protostomian affiliation of phoronids does not still have certain morphological and embryological proofs. In addition, the relationship of phoronids and other former "lophophorates" is still uncertain. The resolving of these conflicts requires detailed information from poorly investigated members of phoronids, such as Phoronopsis harmeri. Results During metamorphosis, the juvenile consumes the nerve elements of the larval hood. Two dorsolateral groups of larval perikarya remain and give rise to the dorsal ganglion, which appears as the "commissural brain". The juvenile inherits the main and minor tentacular nerve rings from the larva. Although the larval tentacles are directly inherited by the juvenile in P. harmeri, the ultrastructure and location of the definitive tentacular neurite bundles change greatly. Innervation of the juvenile lophophore exhibits a regular alternation of the intertentacular and abfrontal neurite bundles. The giant nerve fiber appears at early stage of metamorphosis and passes from the right group of dorsolateral perikarya to the left side of the body. Discussion The metamorphic remodeling of the phoronid nervous system occurs in two different ways: with complete or incomplete destruction of organ systems. The morphology of the lophophore seems similar to those of the former members of "Lophophorata", but its innervation differs greatly. These findings support the separation of bryozoans from Lophophorata and establish a need for new data on the organization of the brachiopod nervous system. The nervous system of the phoronid juvenile is organized as an epidermal nerve plexus but exhibits a nerve center in the anterior portion of the body. The simultaneous presence of both the apical organ and anlage of the cerebral ganglion in phoronids at the larval stage, and the reduction of the apical organ during metamorphosis support the Trochea theory and allow to suggest the presence of two nervous centers in the last common ancestor of the Bilateria. Phoronids retained some plesiomorphic traits and can be regarded as one of the most primitive groups of lophotrochozoans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]