Assessing Juvenile Justice Reform

OJJDP's Demonstration Programs Division Grants were established to provide grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance to organizations identified in the Conference Report to accompany the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2010 (Pub. L. 111-117) -- H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 111-366.

The National Academies will undertake a 24-month study to assess the impact of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDP Act) of 1974, and its four core requirements on juvenile justice policies and practices. It will also assess research on children's development and child relevant domains that have implications for the juvenile justice system and future juvenile justice reform efforts. A committee of 15 experts in delinquency prevention and treatment; criminology; statistics; law; economics, human development, medicine, education, psychiatry, psychology and public policy as well as from the juvenile courts, juvenile corrections and social services fields will be convened. Meeting 5 times during the study, the committee will assess the effects of OJJDP's activities to implement its legislative mandates on juvenile crime and state juvenile justice systems, policies, and practices. Its activities will include reviewing OJJDP's legislative history to ascertain congressional intent and to identify major changes in the JJDP Act's core requirements over its history; assessing the research on prevention and treatment and in other child related domains and its implications for public policy; examining the data on conditions of confinement for juveniles in juvenile and adult facilities and assess the source and quality of that data; and making recommendations to advance theory and research and to improve state and federal policies targeted at the safe and fair treatment of juveniles. The study will conclude with a consensus report documenting the committee's findings and proposing recommendations for the future. NCA/NCF