This chapter reviews the cost-benefit literature on juvenile crime reduction programs, and proposes four program models that should be investigated for their potential cost-effectiveness: mentoring programs, teen courts, juvenile drug courts, and systemic reform strategies. Continue reading Juvenile Crime Interventions

Elected officials throughout the U.S. are gradually dismantling the juvenile justice system and replacing it with a pseudo-criminal system, one that emphasizes mandatory sentences and formal, adversarial procedures. Is the separate, juvenile justice system still feasible? If not, what can replace it? Continue reading Can we do Without Juvenile Justice?

Probation and parole are essential components of the juvenile and criminal (adult) justice systems. Continue reading Probation and Parole

Rather than simply responding punitively to the criminal behavior of youth, we try to resolve the problems that generate criminal behavior – but whose problems? We Americans are biased in how we identify problems and choose solutions. We like to explain our social problems in a way that conforms to a predetermined set of affordable solutions. Continue reading Whose Problem?