NCJ Number
165690
Date Published
1997
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This report analyzes 14 juvenile probation departments in 20 Texas counties in 1996 with respect to juvenile referrals, juvenile dispositions, and gaps between sanctions and the progressive sanctions guidelines adopted by the State legislature in 1995.
Abstract
The guidelines recommend that juveniles be disposed according to a table specifying seven progressively more severe levels of sanctions for the first offense. The first two levels are informal dispositions administered by the juvenile probation department. The analysis revealed that the juveniles were assigned fewer sanctions of deferred prosecution and intensive supervision with probation but more sanctions of regular probation than the guidelines would have recommended. Most dispositions differed from the recommended guideline level. Departments varied in the types of deviations that they were more likely to report. Most deviations occurred when the actual disposition was a less severe sanction than the guideline recommendation. The manual reporting system does not facilitate reporting. Tables and figures