Safety, Fairness, Stability: Repositioning Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare to Engage Families and Communities

• NCJ Number: 238455
• Author(s): Joan Pennell Ph.D.; Carol Shapiro; Carol Spigner Ph.D.
• Date Published: May 2011
• Length: 78 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP); Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admin (SAMHSA)
• Sale Source: Center for Juvenile Justice Reform
• Publication Format: Document; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper examines ways to strengthen the ties of families and communities for youth involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the importance of the role of families and communities for youth involved with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. The paper begins with a discussion of these crossover youth, those involved with both systems, and the need for interventions that ensure the successful return to their families and communities. The second section of the paper focuses on the rights of youth and families, a history of family engagement in juvenile justice and child welfare, recent developments in the field, and lessons learned from the work being done in mental health systems. The third section of the paper discusses family engagement, the idea that agencies involve youths and their families in the decisionmaking process, and the need for building partnerships and supporting youths, their families, and their communities, including the victims of crime, as collaborators in implementing solutions. The fourth section discusses strategies for use by juvenile justice and child welfare systems to strengthen the ties of youth, their families, and their communities. These strategies include encouraging family group leadership, or family group conferencing, adopting restorative justice approaches to divert youths from courts to community programming and improve their chances of reintegration, and having schools improve the home-school relationship. The fifth section of the paper examines research in the areas of child welfare, juvenile justice, schools, and mental health that document the success of certain strategies and practices. The final section of the paper discusses the way forward for the juvenile justice and child welfare systems to ensure that crossover youth and their families receive the support they need to successfully reintegrate back into their communities. Appendixes, references