Breadcrumb
- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
Bullying, Sexual, and Dating Violence Trajectories From Early to Late Adolescence
This report describes a longitudinal study of 1,162 high school students that examined the impact of family abuse and conflict, self-reported delinquency, and peer delinquency on the development of bullying perpetration, sexual harassment perpetration, and teen dating violence perpetration.
Changing Lives: Prevention and Intervention to Reduce Serious Offending
This bulletin provides a review of effective early childhood, juvenile, and early adulthood programs that mitigate risk factors for delinquency and have demonstrated measurable impacts on offending (PDF, 8 pages). These programs are grouped by family, school, peers, and community, individual, and employment.
Criminal Career Patterns
The National Institute of Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention developed the bulletin, "Criminal Career Patterns" as part of the Justice Research Series. This bulletin describes criminal career patterns in adolescence and adulthood.
Explanations for Offending
The National Institute of Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention developed the bulletin, "Explanation for Offending" as part of the Justice Research Series. This bulletin examines various developmental, biological, social, and psychological explanations for offending.
National Institute of Justice
NIJ is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice and is dedicated to researching crime control and justice issues. NIJ provides objective, independent, evidence-based knowledge and tools to meet the challenges of crime and justice, particularly at the state and local levels.
Prediction and Risk/Needs Assessment
The National Institute of Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention developed the bulletin, "Prediction and Risk/Needs Assessment" as part of the Justice Research Series. This bulletin explores predictions of young adult crime from juvenile histories and assessments of risk, needs, and protective factors.
Understanding Teen Dating Violence
In this interview, Dr. Peggy Giordano of Bowling Green State University describes her research on teen dating violence and how it changes over time. Dr. Giordana conducted a longitudinal study following 1,200 youth from age 13 into young adulthood and found conflict in key areas of a relationship can increase the risk of violence.
Community-Based Responses to Justice-Involved Young Adults
This bulletin proposes new institutional methods and processes for young adult justice. The authors’ primary recommendation is that the age of juvenile court jurisdiction be raised to 21, with additional, gradually-diminishing protections for young adults up to age 24 or 25.
Report: Campus Sexual Assault in the United States
This report includes a review of prevalence estimates for campus sexual assault in the United States published between January 2000 and February 2015. Results show that estimates of rape varied widely, largely due to differences in measurement and definitions of sexual assault among studies.
Report: Developmentally Appropriate Criminal Justice Responses to Justice-Involved Young Adults
This report (PDF, 87 pages) presents findings of an environmental scan that identified programs addressing the developmental needs of young adults involved in the criminal justice system. It also discusses legislation with provisions sensitive to the developmental level and maturation of justice-involved young adults.
Resource: Using Procedural Justice to Improve Community Relations
This video features Michael Davis, Director of Public Safety at Northeastern University, describing the concept of procedural justice and how it can be integrated into policing operations to improve community relations and address crime challenges.
Report: The Role of Technology in Youth Harassment Victimization
This bulletin (PDF, 12 pages) discusses key findings from the Technology Harassment Victimization study. Conducted between December 2013 and March 2014, this study examined technology-involved harassment within the context of other types of youth victimization and risk factors.
Resource: Hidden Consequences: The Impact of Incarceration on Dependent Children
This article summarizes the range of risk factors facing children of incarcerated parents. It also cautions against universal policy solutions that seek to address these risk factors but do not take into account the child's unique needs, the child's relationship with the incarcerated parent, and alternative support systems. Correctional practitioners and other service providers can use this resource to better understand how their communication and collaboration can foster a safety net for children and facilitate successful re-entry for the incarcerated parent.
Resource: Drug Courts
This article (PDF, 2 pages) provides an overview of the varying types of drug courts. Criminal defendants and offenders, family members, criminal justice practitioners, and drug treatment professionals can use this information to understand the purpose and function of drug courts and to find related research and resources.
Report: Effects of Child Maltreatment, Cumulative Victimization Experiences, and Proximal Life Stress on Adult Crime and Antisocial Behavior
This report describes a study examining the long-term effects of child abuse and neglect to understand the pathways between child maltreatment and adult criminal behavior. Researchers compared records of abusive parenting to self-reported criminal involvement in adulthood, as well as antisocial behavior during middle childhood and adolescence.
Resource: School Safety: By the Numbers
This resource (PDF, 2 pages), produced by the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative, examines statistics about school safety and violence, including the rates of school crime and school shootings, security measures in schools, the occurrence of traumatic events at school, and the role of social media in making threats. Education professionals, policymakers, and other stakeholders can use this information to develop responses to school violence.
Promise Neighborhoods
To address the challenges faced by students living in communities of concentrated poverty, Promise Neighborhoods grantees and their partner organizations will plan to provide services from early learning to college and career, including programs to improve the health, safety, and stability of neighborhoods, and boost family engagement in student learning.
A Comparison of Four Restorative Conferencing Models
This Bulletin focuses on four restorative conferencing models: victim-offender mediation, community reparative boards, family group conferencing, and circle sentencing. It first describes each of the four restorative conferencing models, then compares and contrasts.
Behavioral Health Problems, Treatment, and Outcomes in Serious Youthful Offenders
This bulletin from OJJDP summarizes findings from analyses of data from the Pathways to Desistance study, which followed more than 1,300 serious youthful offenders for seven years after their court involvement. These analyses addressed the overlap of behavioral health problems and offending behavior (PDF, 16 pages), the care young people with disorders received while in juvenile justice settings, and the care received in the community upon their release. Implications for juvenile justice practice and policy and potential opportunities for system improvement are discussed.
Amber Alert: Best Practices
“AMBER Alert Best Practices,” published by the Department of Justice, discusses the most effective strategies that AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) partners have provided for recovering missing children. It explains the history of the system, the role each partner plays in child recovery and how to use the resources provided as best as possible.
Balanced and Restorative Justice for Juveniles: A Framework for Juvenile Justice in the 21st Century
This document makes the case for a new mission for juvenile justice known as the "Balanced Approach," and advocates consideration of a new philosophical framework, "Restorative Justice," to guide broader policy development and reform in juvenile justice.
Alaska Native Tribal Courts Gain Right to Protect Women in Domestic Violence Cases
With the repeal of the “Alaska Exemption” from the 2013 Violence Against Women Act, Alaska Native communities will now be able to use their sovereign authority to protect women from domestic violence. This repeal was one of the recommendations in the recently released report, Ending Violence So Children Can Thrive (PDF, 258 pages) developed by the Advisory Committee of the Task Force on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence.
Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence: Ending Violence so Children Can Thrive
Commissioned as part of Attorney General Eric Holder’s Defending Childhood initiative, this report from the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence provides recommendations to address the impact of violence on tribal youth (PDF, 258 pages) through trauma-informed and culturally appropriate programs and services.
Aftercare Services
This Bulletin examines aftercare services that provide youth with comprehensive health, mental health, education, family, and vocational services upon their release from the juvenile justice system.
Best Practices to Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP's Comprehensive Gang Model
The Comprehensive Gang Model developed by the OJJDP focuses on community prevention and intervention in balance with law enforcement suppression activities. The model involves five strategies for responding to gang-involved youth and their families. These include community mobilization, opportunities provision, social intervention, suppression, organizational change and development. This brief discusses best practices for implementing the model.