What's Behind the Recent Drop in Juvenile Violent Crime?

OJJDP has recently developed publications and a CD-ROM on three key juvenile justice issues: youth violence, youth gangs, and child abuse. These resources provide important information for juvenile justice practitioners, law enforcement professionals, and others who work with youth.

Stay tuned for details and the availability of an OJJDP-sponsored CD-ROM, Reducing Youth Violence: A Comprehensive Approach. The University of California, Riverside, Office of Educational and Community Initiatives has been working with OJJDP's Training and Technical Assistance Division to develop this CD-ROM, which showcases a range of strategies that provide a comprehensive approach for reducing youth violence. It includes information on programs, summaries and full text of more than 100 relevant publications, and contacts for additional resources, training, and technical assistance. The CD-ROM is currently being field tested, and you may have an opportunity to see and use it at conferences this winter. For more details, including information on the CD-ROM's availability, look for announcements on JUVJUST, OJJDP's electronic listserv, or send an e-mail to [email protected]. See our instructions on how to subscribe to JUVJUST.

OJJDP introduces a new Bulletin series with Youth Gangs: An Overview. The proliferation of youth gangs since 1980 has fueled the public's fear and magnified possible misconceptions about youth gangs. To address this mounting concern, the Youth Gang Bulletin series delves into many of the key issues related to youth gangs. These issues include gang migration, gang growth, female involvement with gangs, homicide, drugs and violence, and the needs of communities and youth who live in the presence of youth gangs. Youth Gangs: An Overview reviews the problems that youth gangs pose, pinpoints the differences between youth gangs and adult criminal organizations, examines the risk factors that lead to youth gang membership, and presents promising strategies being used to curb youth gang involvement.

In addition to Youth Gangs: An Overview (NCJ 167249), other gang-related publications, sponsored by OJJDP and other Office of Justice Programs agencies, are available from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC). They include:

	1995 National Youth Gang Survey (Program Summary). NCJ 164728.
	Addressing Community Gang Problems: A Model for Problem Solving (Monograph). NCJ 156059.
	A Comprehensive Response to America's Youth Gang Problem (Fact Sheet). FS 009640.
	Gang Members and Delinquent Behavior (Bulletin). NCJ 165154.
	Gang Suppression and Intervention: Community Models (Research Summary). NCJ 148202.
	Gang Suppression and Intervention: Problem and Response (Research Summary). NCJ 149629.
	Highlights of the 1995 National Youth Gang Survey (Fact Sheet). FS 009763.
	Prosecuting Gangs: A National Assessment (Research in Brief). NCJ 151785.
	Street Gangs and Drug Sales in Two Suburban Cities (Research in Brief). NCJ 155185.
	Urban Street Gang Enforcement (Monograph). NCJ 161845.
	Youth Gangs (Fact Sheet). FS 009772.

Contact JJC at 800-638-8736 or send your request via e-mail to [email protected]. These documents are also available online. Visit the Publications section of OJJDP's Web site, www.ojjdp.gov.

OJJDP's National Youth Gang Center

As part of its comprehensive, coordinated response to America's gang problem, OJJDP funds the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC). NYGC assists State and local jurisdictions in the collection, analysis, and exchange of information on gang-related demographics, legislation, literature, research, and promising program strategies. It also coordinates activities of the OJJDP Gang Consortium -- a group of Federal agencies, gang program representatives, and service providers that words to coordinate gang information and programs. For more information, contact NYGC at:

P.O. Box 12729
Tallahassee, FL 32317
850-385-0600
850-385-5356 (fax)
[email protected] (e-mail)
www.iir.com/nygc

Information newly available on the Web site includes gang-related legislation by subject and by State, and the Youth Gang Consortium Survey of Gang Problems.

OJJDP's award-winning series of Portable Guides continues to provide law enforcement agencies with basic guidelines for investigating child abuse and neglect. The guides provide practical information to assist in the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of crimes against children in straightforward, uncomplicated language using bulleted lists, tables, charts, checklists, and sample forms. There are 11 guides in the series, covering a wide range of topics: investigating physical abuse and homicide, burn injuries, child neglect and Munchausen syndrome by proxy, criminal investigation, diagnostic imaging, photodocumentation, sexually transmitted diseases, and child sexual exploitation. More topics are planned for the future, including the use of computers in the sexual victimization of children, the multidisciplinary team approach to investigating child abuse, and multicultural issues in investigating allegations of child abuse.

For more details on the topics covered, order Portable Guides to Investigating Child Abuse: An Overview (see the order form). This OJJDP Bulletin describes the series and its benefits, and offers a synopsis of each guide. The Bulletin also describes resources for training and technical assistance in handling child maltreatment cases, including the Missing and Exploited Children's Training Programs sponsored by OJJDP and Fox Valley Technical College. A list of related publications available from OJJDP is also provided for those interested in obtaining more information.

For more information about OJJDP's Missing and Exploited Children's Training Programs, including a schedule of workshops, visit www.foxvalley.tec.wi.us/ojjdp on the World Wide Web.