NCJ Number
80813
Date Published
1982
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This summary of a two-volume national evaluation study reports that the deinstitutionalization of status offenders (DSO) fostered by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (JJDP) led to increased cooperation of court personnel and in the establishment of service agency networks. DSO was the first large program launched by the 1974 Act.
Abstract
Status offenders are juveniles who commit prohibited acts which would not be criminal if committed by adults. The JJDP Act authorized use of Federal funds to encourage States to remove such offenders from incarceration. The intention was to thus reduce future delinquency which theoretically would be fostered by the stigmatization of the youth so confined (labeling theory). The deinstitutionalized youth were diverted into community-based programs. Eight sites were selected for evaluation. The evaluation disclosed that one shortcoming of program execution was the failure to tie the program activities to the underlying assumptions of the JJDP Act -those of labeling theory -- and thus failure to achieve the expected delinquency reduction. However, residential programs showed great promise with high-risk offenders. Most clients of the program showed mixed patterns of status offending and delinquency. There was a tendency toward net-widening; i.e., drawing into DSO programs youths who would not have been designated as status offenders had the programs not existed. Programs based mainly on counseling were less effective than other forms of treatment. Adequate lead time is required for setting up such programs, and the cooperation of local police and courts is better obtained through legislative fiat than through persuasion. Footnotes are provided. Data tables are not found in the summary, but are provided in the full report, NCJ 80811. Computer file documentation and survey instruments for the evaluation are found in NCJ 80812.