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Recently within the juvenile justice system there has been a great deal of attention toward increasing family involvement, with the goal of enhancing the quality of service-delivery for youth active with the justice system and their families, and ultimately achieving better overall outcomes. Many states are adopting new initiatives and policies to improve the involvement and engagement of family members in decision-making, treatment, supervision and overall case management. To date, however, there is little published empirical evidence that demonstrates whether or how such involvement will translate into greater success, increased compliance with treatment and conditions, goal attainment, reduced length of stay/time on supervision, and ultimately lower recidivism rates, for youth active with the juvenile justice system. Furthermore, there is a need to clearly define and operationalize “family involvement” within a juvenile justice context, which has not yet been clearly conceptualized or operationalized in the literature. While there are a few studies that examine family involvement with justice involved youth, these are generally limited to youth in out-of-home placement facilities. With the majority of youth remaining in the community during their involvement with the juvenile justice system, conducting research within a community-based setting is an integral part of understanding family involvement. The current study sought to provide an understanding of how best to measure and operationalize family involvement in a broader juvenile justice context. In addition to developing a working definition of, and framework for, family involvement, this dissertation examined whether or not family involvement influences recidivism. To examine the relationship between family involvement and recidivism from a community corrections lens, the current study used case record data from a random sample of 300 youth referred to the Dauphin County Pennsylvania Juvenile Probation Department in 2010. In Pennsylvania juvenile probation officers are involved with a case from referral to case closing; therefore, in addition to providing a community corrections setting, the juvenile probation department provides the opportunity to measure family involvement from case beginning to end. Employing a longitudinal cohort design, two years of retrospective data were collected for the 97 females and 203 males included in the study sample. Multivariate analyses were used to measure the relationship between various indicators of family involvement and youth outcomes. Findings show that family member presence at court hearings is a significant predictor of recidivism. Youth whose family members missed at least one court hearing were significantly more likely to have a violation of probation filed, to recidivate, and to have a shorter time to rearrest. Additionally, when exploring familial characteristics that may contribute to family involvement, risk assessment results and family member criminal justice history were significantly related to various family involvement measures. This research helps lay the conceptual and empirical foundation for understanding and testing the impact of family involvement, and its findings contribute to the knowledge of the role of family in the juvenile justice system. This dissertation also suggests new areas of research to assess the effects of family involvement on juvenile justice outcomes. These initial findings assist in understanding the nature and impact of such initiatives, and provide important feedback to policy makers and program officials as they continue to shape the role of a family involvement strategy in juvenile justice, with the primary goal of increasing overall youth success and reducing recidivism. / Criminal Justice

Juvenile drug use in the country has grown exponentially in recent years. As such, a large percentage of those juveniles currently charged, retained, or on probation for their crimes have committed these crimes while under the influence of drugs. Many of these juveniles come from drug afflicted childhoods, families, and neighborhoods. The rate of recidivism for juveniles is very high and often leads to adult incarceration. The theory of Therapeutic Jurisprudence, utilized through the drug court process, attempts to rehabilitate juveniles into healthy drug-free adults. This study is devoted to exploring the theory of Therapeutic Jurisprudence through juvenile drug courts and the drug court movement. It also investigates whether or not an universal implementation of drug courts into all Florida juvenile systems would have an affect on these juveniles in relation to rates of recidivism and overall health of these juveniles.

The Nevada State Juvenile Justice and School systems do not currently screen or treat juveniles for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Left untreated, PTSD may contribute to behaviors that can lead to engagement with the juvenile justice system and contribute to high rates of recidivism and possible future engagement with the adult justice system. Using Erickson's theory of psychological development as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore whether, from the perspectives of key stakeholders whether interventions and prevention services for juvenile justice clients in Carson City met the needs of youthful offenders also diagnosed with PTSD. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 2 mental health counselors, 6 juvenile justice administrators, and 10 parents. Interviews were transcribed and then subjected to Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis procedure. The findings of the study revealed 2 primary findings. First, the juvenile justice system is adequate in terms of identifying youth with mental-health issues and referring to behavioral-health providers when appropriate. Staff, however, may not have adequate training to provide proper intervention when necessary. Second, service delivery by behavioral-health providers fails when health care providers do not accept feedback from stakeholders that may result in inconsistent intervention services. Recommendations to the juvenile justice system decision makers to adopt a validated risk and needs assessment tool to asses all youths' level of care and mental health status and treat youth with mental-health issues separately from other justice-involved youth may lead to improvements in intervention services thereby decreasing youths' involvement with the juvenile justice system.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 268-274).