NCJ Number
224170
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 19 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2008 Pages: 255-263
Date Published
September 2008
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article provides an overview of this special issue, which examines the modern accountability movement in juvenile justice under the Federal Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants (JAIBG) Act of 1997.
Abstract
The main purpose of JAIBG was to encourage States and localities to strengthen the prosecution and sanctioning of youthful offenders, particularly those who commit serious and violent crimes. A major funding stream was implemented in 1998 through the use of block grants to State and local governments attempting to increase accountability within their juvenile justice systems. The funding targeted policies and programs in five major areas: subjecting serious and violent juvenile offenders to adult court prosecutions; expanding the graduated sanctions available to juvenile courts; holding parents responsible for their children’s actions; establishing appropriate drug-testing policies and procedures; and improving juvenile record-keeping systems to parallel those for adult offenders. Although the literature contains a fair amount of discussion about the juvenile accountability movement, and various assertions have been made about the effectiveness of JAIBG, relatively little rigorous scientific research has examined the impact of the various programs that have been implemented by Congress. In an effort to fill some of this gap, one of the articles in this special issue addresses the use of performance monitoring in order to improve the accountability, operations, and effectiveness of juvenile justice. A second article focuses on predicting public opinion about juvenile waivers to adult court, and a third article examines whether the criminal sentence received by juveniles transferred to criminal court is dependent on the mechanism used to bring them to criminal court. Other articles address the impact on case outcomes of the Missouri Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 1995, juveniles’ perspectives on parental responsibility for juveniles’ behavior, and the effect on referrals to Youth Court of structuring police discretion. 23 references