Jeffrey Butts, executive director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay, said the board clearly received professional guidance for the characteristics of adolescence and behavior. “All the language they are using is right on the money,” he said. Continue reading State Parole Board Would Consider Brain Development in Release of Minors
Maryland takes a comprehensive approach to youth justice. In 2023, Governor Moore recruited Vincent Schiraldi to be Secretary of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS). Schiraldi is one of the nation’s foremost public safety experts and agency leaders. He was familiar with the numerous policy tensions involved in youth justice. He knew elected officials and the general public look instinctively to law enforcement and punishment in response to youth crime concerns. However, he also knew that punishment-only approaches inevitably fail to protect the public. Effective crime prevention must work on multiple fronts simultaneously and must do so without causing undue harm. Continue reading Investing in Maryland Safety
To enhance our impact on crime prevention, researchers should improve three things: 1) the questions we ask, 2) the data we use to answer them, and 3) the way we share our answers with communities. Continue reading Better Evidence, Better Policy
If recent changes in crime were due to changes in the legal handling of youth under 18, marked age-specific patterns would be observable. Such effects are not found in arrest data from New York City. Thus, it does not appear to be accurate to attribute recent increases in violent crime to the State law known as “Raise the Age.” Continue reading Minor Role III: Youth Under Age 18 and New York City Violence
