NCJ Number
131360
Date Published
1988
Length
25 pages
Annotation
A national research program to assess the value of Deinstitutionalizing Status Offenders (DSO) is based on the proposition that several rationales underlie policy positions on the handling of status offenders.
Abstract
A primary concern of the program is the extent to which State legislation reflects major rationales for status offender intervention. Two rationales, medical or treatment-oriented and normalization or noninterventionist, came together with the passage of the 1974 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act and its provisions for handling status offenders. The DSO movement was legitimized by the 1974 Act at a time when sociopolitical conservatism was replacing social liberalism as the dominant mood of the country. This emerging conservatism emphasized a third rationale, deterrence, in contrast to treatment and normalization models. At the State level, juvenile statutory codes through early 1987 were relevant to the DSO movement in terms of jurisdictional classification, pre/post adjudication detention and placement, and the provision of services or dispositional options. States currently vary in their treatment, normalization, and deterrence rationales contained in status offender legislation. A legislative coding scheme for status offenders is appended. 1 table