NCJ Number
103417
Date Published
1986
Length
111 pages
Annotation
This first report of New Jersey's Juvenile Delinquency Disposition Commission analyzes the impact of the new Juvenile Code during its initial implementation phase, examines how delinquency cases are handled, and recommends several future actions.
Abstract
After examining the extent of juvenile delinquency, the report discusses the Code's policy goals, profiles the juvenile justice system, and explores selected issues such as juvenile detention, waivers to adult court, and family crisis intervention. Additional areas addressed are court access to services and resources, short-term commitment juveniles, the roles of human services and corrections, and the use of incarceration. Overall, the new Code has increased coordination and cooperation within the juvenile justice system. The new Family Crisis Intervention Units are handling minor delinquency and family-related problems, and mandated court service planning is operational. Surprisingly, the numbers of incarcerated juveniles have declined and waivers to adult court have not increased. Limited success, however, has been achieved in several major areas. For example, considerable disparity in decisionmaking still exists among counties, disposition services available to the court have not expanded significantly, and developmentally disabled offenders continue to be incarcerated. While the Code has been characterized as getting tough on juvenile crime, research suggests it may be more lenient. Detailed recommendations address these and other problems. Charts and footnotes.