January | February 2018

Administrator Harp and OJJDP Staff To Participate in National Conference on Juvenile Justice

On March 21, 2018, OJJDP Administrator Caren Harp will discuss the importance and status of OJJDP’s authorizing legislation, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act during a session at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ (NCJFCJ’s) National Conference on Juvenile Justice. NCJFCJ is a national organization that helps family and juvenile justice system professionals, including judges, probation officers, detention staff, service providers, supervisors, and other system stakeholders improve the lives of families and children who are seeking justice. This year’s conference will take place in San Diego, CA, on March 18–21, 2018.

During the session “The Judiciary Role in Promoting Police and Youth Engagement” on March 19, OJJDP Senior Policy Advisor Scott Pestridge will discuss the pivotal roles judges can play in convening stakeholders to address school pathways to the juvenile justice system. Mr. Pestridge will highlight agency-funded resources, including the OJJDP-International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Institute for Police-Youth Engagement and NCJFCJ’s School Pathways to the Juvenile Justice System project. OJJDP and IACP launched the institute to improve youth and law enforcement interactions and promote collaboration between the two groups. The Pathways project is establishing judicially led court-school partnerships to help reduce referrals to the juvenile justice system for school-based behaviors.

In “Child Sex Trafficking Indicators and Responses for Judicial Officials,” also on March 19, OJJDP Senior Policy Advisor Cynthia Pappas will highlight the agency’s work to help judicial officials better identify and respond to child victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The presentation will address judges’ responses to child victims in court, and how to provide comprehensive services to help these children heal and stay out of the juvenile justice system.

On March 20, Barbara Tatem Kelley, OJJDP Social Science Analyst, will lead the session “How Common Is Crossover and What Can We Do About It? Estimating Incidence Rates and Implementing Best Practices for Dual System Youth.” Ms. Kelley will summarize findings from the Design Study of Dual System Youth, which OJJDP launched to develop a sound research design for obtaining national estimates of youth involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The project also aims to identify effective strategies to improve coordination between the two systems.

Also on March 20, Jennifer Tyson, OJJDP Research Coordinator, will lead the session “Bridging Research and Practice in Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach to Youth Probation.” Presenters will discuss OJJDP’s Bridging Research and Practice To Advance Juvenile Justice and Safety project to shed light on how the latest research on adolescent development and effective interventions for at-risk and system-involved youth can be applied to common youth probation practices. Attendees will discuss the research-to-practice aspect of this project.

Resources:

A complete list of conference presentations is available on the NCJFCJ website.