“If peer pressure can lead young people into delinquency, maybe it can help keep them out of delinquency,” wrote Jeffrey Butts, executive director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in a 2002 study of national teen courts. The study Butts helped conduct reviewed four teen court sites across the country. In Alaska, the recidivism rate for kids who went through Teen Court was 6 percent, compared to 23 percent in juvenile court. In Missouri, it was 9 percent compared to 28 percent in juvenile court. Two other states showed minimal differences in their recidivism rates. Continue reading Register-Mail – Participants say Teen Court Produces Positive Results

On the other hand, juvenile justice expert Jeffrey Butts, of the University of Chicago’s [Chapin Hall] Center for Children, said there’s widespread agreement that incarceration does not help runaway youth. Still, the answer is not to blame juvenile judges, Butts said. Imagine someone’s 13-year-old daughter with a 28-year-old so-called boyfriend,” he said. “Imagine drug abuse and prostitution. What are your choices?” If communities are appalled that judges jail noncriminal kids, he continued, then “the actual closing of that jail door will force the community to come up with alternative resources.” Continue reading Yakima Herald – Jailing Runaways: Judge says State Services are Lacking

Dr. Jeffrey Butts, a juvenile justice expert at the University of Chicago, said some states have simply learned how to market themselves. “Missouri’s better than most, but the best?” he said. “Let’s put it this way: If I had a 16-year-old, I’d much rather have them in Missouri than in Texas.” Continue reading Dallas Morning News – Missouri’s Focus on Therapeutic Rehab Amounts to ‘Unprisonment’

Overall, violent crime is at a 30-year low, but data suggests that a number of cities are starting to experience rising violence, said Jeffrey Butts, a senior researcher at the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. “We have to intervene earlier with youthful offenders,” Butts said. “We cannot wait until a young person is already involved in serious and violent crime and then try to stop it. Waiting is not only ineffective, it’s expensive.” Continue reading Kansas City Star – KC Police Chief Asks Congress to Invest in Juvenile Programs