NCJ Number
134534
Date Published
1990
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the available data and information sources regarding children living in detention homes, shelters, psychiatric hospitals, foster homes, drug treatment centers, and other out-of-home placements concludes that new strategies are needed to provide an accurate, unduplicated count of facilities and youth.
Abstract
The four national public agencies providing information on this subject are the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Office of Human Development Services, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Some of these data sources overlap. Five inexpensive ways to improve the data include speeding up the publication of existing surveys, expanding coverage by publishing State directories, improving the accuracy and quality of surveys, assessing the overlaps and double-counting, and initiating a biennial child welfare survey. Tables and 27 references