This report summarizes the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP's) tribal youth research activities, under the Tribal Youth Program (TYP), which are designed to provide empirical evidence about juvenile justice and delinquency prevention policies and practices and their impact on Tribal youth.
Since 1999, OJJDP's, TYP Program has funded Tribal programs, training and technical assistance, and research and evaluation projects to help improve juvenile justice systems and prevention efforts among federally recognized American Indian Tribes. This report focuses specifically on research activities. OJJDP’s program of research for Tribal youth includes the following initiatives: (1) the Michigan Public Health Institute in Okemos, Michigan in partnership with the Native American Institute at Michigan State University in Lansing, is helping five Tribes evaluate the programs developed with their TYP funds; (2) New Mexico State University in Las Cruces is conducting a study that uses the unique historical, cultural, social, and legal aspect of one Tribal nation in the Four Corners area of the southwestern United States; (3) the College of Menominee Nation in Keshena, Wisconsin is working with Menominee organizations to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate a culturally appropriate, community-based, family-centered approach to juvenile justice and delinquency prevention; (4) the Navajo Nation Judicial Branch in Arizona, is conducting a comprehensive assessment of gang activity by a Tribal government; (5) researchers at California State University are using ethnographic observation and interviews with the community and gang members to document and profile youth gangs in both rural and urban Tribal sites across the country; (6) the Tribal youth field-initiated research and evaluation program support projects that focus on and address alcohol and substance abuse; (7) the Indian country component added to the OJJDP’s National Youth Gang Survey, in 2001, will assess the prevalence, composition, and activities of youth gangs in federally recognized Tribes; and (8) a new project that has a specific cultural focus assessing the complex relationships among culture, community, family, individual youth, and the development of delinquency.