NCJ Number
241543
Date Published
December 2011
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This report presents the findings and recommendations of focus groups of youth and their parents/guardians regarding the National Juvenile Information Sharing Initiative (NJISI), which is promoting improved information sharing among key agencies that are responsible for community safety and the health and well-being of children at risk for problem behavior, including delinquency.
Abstract
There are four primary reasons for such information sharing. First, it enables decisionmakers to access and exchange critical information electronically at key decision points. Second, it facilitates more efficient access to data and information from multiple locations. Third, it improves data quality, and fourth, it eliminates redundant data collection and entry. The NJISI is funded by the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and is administered by the Center for Network Development (CND). The NJISI has established pilot sites in order to determine what does and does not work in its implementation. What has been missing in this learning phase has been the voices of youth and their parents/guardians. In order to address this need, the CND coordinated and conducted focus groups in 2010 and 2011 in order to obtain participants perspectives, attitudes, and needs regarding the sharing of data by Colorado-based agencies. The focus groups involved 52 youth and 27 parents/guardians. Overall, the vast majority of the adult and youth participants were open and accepting to information sharing, but with qualifications that included, information accuracy, misinterpretation that results in flawed decisionmaking, and the monitoring of the effects of the information-sharing system. Suggestions are offered for attempting to ensure that an information-sharing system meets these performance criteria. A table presents focus group demographics. Appended focus group guide