A field-initiated research project conducting comprehensive meta-analysis of 2003-07 data on justice-involved minority and tribal youth in a Southwestern border community.

The Minority Youth (MY) Border Research Initiative, funded in its first year through an OJJDP FY 2007 Field-Initiated Research and Evaluation Program grant, was specifically designed to explore the underlying factors for why justice-involved, tribal and minority youth in Southwestern border communities are at greater risk for early onset of substance abuse, and long-term persistence of delinquency, victimization, and mental illness as compared with their non-minority youth peers. To this end, the MY Border Research Initiative proposed to conduct in the first year a comprehensive meta-analysis of existing quantitative and qualitative data (2003-2007) from justice-involved, tribal and minority youth in a Southwestern border community. Activities in two subsequent years were designed to assess existing service capacity for this population, and to work with community providers, including juvenile justice professionals, behavioral health professionals, tribal leaders and others to disseminate the results of the research and best practices on behalf of this high risk population. This proposal constitutes a continuation of the MY Border Field Initiated Research Grant, for two additional years (2008-2010), which has great potential for contributing significantly to advances in scientific or technical understanding of the factors affecting minority and tribal youth and in the juvenile justice field as a whole. NCA/NCF