Federal Resources

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. 

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.

This report from the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines what types of violence children report and what professionals are aware of the reported violence. The report shows that 46 percent of victimized children were known to school, police, or medical authorities. 

cciToolsforFeds.org provides information to federal staff to help them design, implement and evaluate comprehensive community initiatives. This ToolKit aims to help federal staff align funding, management, evaluation, and technical assistance to ensure that the focus on systems change remains front and center as they partner with communities in the work of building healthy and capable children, youth, and families.

This bulletin, from the Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, presents findings from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence about the relationship between delinquency and victimization among children and youth. The bulletin highlights the implications of these findings for practitioners in the adolescent development and intervention fields. 

This OJJDP-sponsored report, released by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, aims to strengthen prevention, identification, and response efforts by offering recommendations for the response to commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of minors. 

This resource page from the OJJDP provides a comprehensive summary about girls and delinquency and their involvement in the juvenile justice system. It also covers more in-depth information about how girls develop differently than boys, how this affects their experiences with the juvenile justice system, and why services need to be tailored to their needs. Evaluation of gender-specific programming has shown encouraging results in substance abuse and gang prevention programs for girls.

This resource is particularly useful for new applicants in navigating the challenges of a highly competitive application and grant award process. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has posted a number of current solicitations on OJJDP's Funding Opportunities Web page. Additional funding opportunities from other OJP components may be found on OJP's Open Solicitations Web page.

An OJDDP report on the growth of youth gang problems in the United States between 1970-1998.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has released “Highlights of the 2010 National Youth Gang Survey,” a fact sheet that discusses the prevalence of gangs and gang activity in the United States, as well as reasons for gang-member migration and external gang influences. 

This fact sheet gives an overview of the five original communities that were awarded grants to implement demonstration projects of the Comprehensive Gang Model.

This bulletin presents research on why youth join gangs and how a community can build gang prevention and intervention services.

This issue discusses incarcerated youth with mental health issues, including challenges and solutions.

This bulletin provides an overview of research on the deterrent effects of transferring youth from juvenile to criminal courts, focusing on large-scale comprehensive OJJDP-funded studies on the effect of transfer laws on recidivism.

The Model Programs Guide (MPG) is designed to assist practitioners and communities in implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention programs that can make a difference in the lives of children and communities. The MPG database of evidence-based programs covers the entire continuum of youth services from prevention through sanctions to reentry. The MPG is a tool that offers a database of scientifically-proven programs that address a range of issues, including substance abuse, mental health, and education programs.

National Gang Center assists policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in the development and implementation of effective, community-based gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies

This resource provides technical assistance to practitioners to help them adopt evidence-based practices to address juvenile justice and juvenile delinquency issues.

This annual survey of law enforcement agencies is developed and implemented by the National Gang Center and is used to assess the extent of gang problems by measuring the presence, characteristics, and behaviors of local gangs in jurisdictions throughout the country.

This Juvenile Justice Bulletin from the OJJDP gives a comprehensive discussion of risk factors for youth violence, including gang membership, across the domains of individual, family, school, peer, and community factors. The Bulletin also gives a brief overview of a study that looked at predictors of violent or serious delinquency by age group and includes a discussion of what the results mean for implementing interventions and appropriately using the identified risk factors.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) provides national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and victimization.

The ICAC Program can help State and local law enforcement agencies to develop an effective response to online enticement and child pornography cases.

This guide can help first-responders and investigators distinguish between types of injuries and differentiate between injuries that result from child abuse (PDF, 28 pages) and those that are accidental. 

This strategic planning tool developed by the OJJDP helps communities  assess the severity of their gang problems and plan their responses. The tools provided include: a community resource inventory to record community assets such as programs and services; planning and implementation questions to help assess what prevention and intervention programs match with their needs; descriptions of risk factors categorized by age and domain (individual, family, etc.); and a program matrix that lists appropriate programs and their descriptions.

Call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST to report sexually exploited or abused minors or submit a tip online at http://www.cybertipline.org.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has released a Spanish translation of a publication for youth who were abducted as children and are working towards recovery.