NCJ Number
187564
Journal
Juvenile and Family Court Journal Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Dated: Winter 2001 Pages: 1-9
Date Published
2001
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article reports on an evaluation of a Citizen Review Board (CRB) program designed to review juvenile offender cases.
Abstract
CRB's consist of panels of citizens, selected and trained by the court, whose function is to review juvenile offender cases and recommend to the judge appropriate services and treatment. The sample for the current study included 157 juvenile offenders who were first-time adjudicated offenders. The youth were randomly assigned by the juvenile judge either to receive review by the CRB or go through the regular court process. Sixty-eight of the youth were reviewed by the CRB, and 89 composed the control group. Data were collected on both groups for more than 3 years (1995-99). Program outcomes examined for the study included court processing time, placement and treatment facility changes, and recidivism rates. Findings suggest that the youth served by the CRB program had statistically fewer out-of-home placements in treatment programs during the course of the study, and more time had elapsed between the date of the original offense and the re-offense for youth reviewed by the CRB. The increase in the number of juvenile offenders being processed through the Nation's court systems, as well as an increase in the number of CRBs, indicate a need for further examination of how CRB's can best serve the juvenile court system and the youth served by that system. 2 tables and 21 references