NCJ Number
224585
Journal
The Future of Children Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: Fall 2008 Pages: 35-57
Date Published
2008
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article proposes ways to improve professional judgments about juvenile offenders’ risk to public safety and their amenability to treatment.
Abstract
The article notes that although various types of structured decisionmaking instruments are widely used in other fields, juvenile justice professionals make limited use of these tools in deciding how juvenile offenders should be managed for risk and treatment. Juvenile justice professionals instead rely primarily on their intuition in deciding whether a particular juvenile is likely to reoffend or respond to specific types of treatment in modifying his/her delinquent behavior. The reluctance of juvenile justice professionals to use these structured decisionmaking tools are justified by claims of a heavy workload that prevents the time-consuming administration of screening tools. This article argues, however, that the reluctance to use proven screening and diagnostic tools with each juvenile is also rooted in the ethos of the juvenile court, which resists viewing each adolescent as a unique individual with distinctive strengths, abilities, and needs that warrant individualized interventions. This article recommends three ways for the juvenile justice system to integrate structured decisionmaking into a system that provides fair, individualized justice. First, there should be more reliance on actuarial methods for screening at intake, so as to make more equitable decisions about subsequent court involvement. Second, there should be structured decisionmaking by probation officers, so as to provide more consistent and valid guidance for the court in the design of its dispositions. Finally, structured data systems should be implemented in charting the progress of adolescents under placement dispositions. This would enable judges to oversee service providers more effectively. The juvenile justice system must access the new capacities of decisionmaking science and computer technology in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its limited resources. 63 notes