NCJ Number
200224
Date Published
October 2002
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This document provides a literature review on the assessment and treatment of young offenders.
Abstract
There has been an acknowledgement of the literature on what works for effective corrections and policy practices. This literature highlights the appropriate assessment strategies that increase the potential for interventions to be clinically relevant to factors that influence criminogenic risk. There has been an identification of contextual factors that can influence the probability that program innovation will be successfully introduced. These factors include leadership support for implementation, staff competence, and goal clarification for the reasons behind implementation. A multi-level systems analysis is necessary to fully understand the complexities of systems change. The four levels of analysis are an understanding of the needs of the client, program, agency, and society. Specific contextual factors influence successful implementation. Different factors influence successful community-based implementation versus residential-based implementation. Measures have been developed to monitor the degree of success in program implementation, including measures for treatment adherence and program compliance. Training and dissemination is considered the greatest challenge facing implementation in the corrections field. What could shape the next generation of corrections professionals is the challenge of communicating the knowledge on effective strategies to practitioners. The Internet and interactive communication technology are examples of methods in communicating that knowledge to those that make decisions both for policy and for practice. 32 references