Diversion Programs - Effect of Stigmatization on Juvenile/Status Offenders

• NCJ Number: 100091
• Journal: Juvenile and Family Court Journal Volume: 36 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1985) Pages: 13-25
• Author(s): D B Anderson; D F Schoen
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Best Practice/State-of-the-Art Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This review of the literature on diversion's positive and negative effects on stigmatization of juvenile status offenders concludes that the issue has been researched only from the organizational perspective and that diversion's impact on stigmatization has yet to be adequately evaluated.

Abstract

Literature supports that personal, social, and organizational stigma adversely affect status offenders. Similarly, it is agreed that diversion's objective is stigma reduction, an important benefit for status offenders. Both opponents and advocates of diversion, however, have paid little attention to its effect on personal stigmatization and have ignored social stigmatization. Instead, the diversion controversy focuses on the juvenile justice system, with supporters contending that any system avoidance reduces offender stigmatization and opponents arguing that any system extension unavoidably increases status offender stigmatization. Thus, diversion is viewed as both a preventer and perpetrator of secondary deviance. Because of these research shortcomings, it is premature to judge diversion's value. Suggestions for future research, 52 footnotes, and 71 references.