NCJ Number
195966
Journal
Juvenile and Family Court Journal Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Dated: Spring 2002 Pages: 1-16
Date Published
2002
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article focuses on juvenile victimization of parents and the model programs emerging in juvenile courts to address the problem.
Abstract
The paper examines the prevalence of family violence in juvenile court caseloads, despite its absence from consideration in most dispositions. The article presents a comparative analysis of the drug court trend and discusses the trend's applicability to specialized family violence proceedings in the juvenile court. The article introduces the King County, WA, Juvenile Court's Step-Up Program, which directly addresses family violence with intervention programs for youth perpetrators and abused parents. It also describes the Santa Clara County, CA's, Juvenile Court Family Violence program, shown as a model worthy of replication. In addition, it details the process by which the Travis County, TX, Juvenile Court is implementing a program similar to these models. The article concludes that juvenile courts must address family violence as an overt or underlying issue in many cases and must identify and address the danger to troubled youths, whether offenders or victims. Further, the domestic violence community's treatment expertise must inform the juvenile courts' interventions with violent, often insular, families, to prevent the inter-generational cycle from repeating itself. Notes