NCJ Number
210017
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2005 Pages: 190-210
Date Published
June 2005
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study examined the effects of a policy change in two counties in New Hampshire that adopted a pilot family court system to replace the juvenile court system, with the aim of providing more individualized case handling.
Abstract
Two other counties in New Hampshire that did not adopt a pilot family court system but retained their traditional juvenile court system were used as comparison counties. Juvenile court records for the four counties were examined for 1 year, from August 2000 to August 2001. During this period, 1,074 cases were processed in family courts compared to 1,401 cases processed in juvenile courts. Because these cases were obtained cross-sectionally by time period, the author maintains it is possible to generalize, albeit cautiously, to other years in which the family court existed as well as to subsequent years, given no significant change in the two court systems or in juvenile law. The participant population involved juvenile offenders who were detained in secure custody prior to case disposition. The unit of analysis was the individual case. In selecting variables for measurement, the study assumed that if family courts are more individualized than juvenile courts, then social characteristics of a juvenile should have a greater role than legal factors in dispositional decisions compared to juvenile courts. In the interest of individualized dispositions, family court judges may be more likely to order clinical assessments compared to juvenile courts. The result of logistic regression shows that family courts may be dispensing individualized justice by accepting fewer plea bargains and by ordering more clinical assessments for juveniles and their families. Ultimately, however, there was no difference in actual sentencing outcomes between the two types of courts. 6 tables, 37 references, and appended Pearson correlation matrix