Smart on Juvenile Justice: Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility

The Smart on Juvenile Justice: Age of Criminal Responsibility Training and Technical Assistance program will fund training and technical assistance for states that automatically classify all 17 year olds as adults for justice system purposes, including two states that do the same for all 16 year olds. This solicitation is part of OJJDP’s Smart on Juvenile Justice initiative, which encourages systemwide reform to reduce the use of out-of-home placement, improve youth outcomes, and reduce reoffending.

American Institutes for Research (AIR) will work with OJJDP to identify and provide technical assistance to two states that have an age of criminal responsibility set at younger than 18 years old, and who are interested in analyzing their juvenile justice system arrest and disposition patterns for youth through age 17. AIR will help the states assess the capacity of their juvenile justice system to absorb 16- and 17-year olds, help states forecast the potential implications of such a policy change for the juvenile and criminal justice systems, convene multidisciplinary stakeholders, and provide states with lessons learned from other jurisdictions that recently undertook a similar policy shift. CA/NCF