After peaking in 1994, juvenile violent crime arrests, which had increased substantially since the late 1980s, declined dramatically. According to the OJJDP Bulletin Juvenile Arrests 1999, the juvenile arrest rate for violent crime in 1999 (the most recent year for which juvenile arrest statistics are available) was 36 percent below its peak in 1994. From 1993 to 1999, the juvenile arrest rate for murder decreased a remarkable 68 percent—to the lowest level since the 1970s. The number of juvenile arrests has declined in every violent crime category, despite an 8-percent growth in the juvenile population from 1993 to 1999.

These statistics are encouraging. Nevertheless, the Nation must not become complacent about the continuing need to combat delinquency and violent juvenile crime. Although the violent juvenile �superpredator� many feared at the beginning of the 1990s never emerged, the country�s juvenile justice system now faces a host of new challenges—drug dependency, underage drinking, child maltreatment, online sexual exploitation of children, youth gangs, increasing numbers of female juvenile offenders, delinquency on tribal lands, and mental health problems—to name just a few.

As the Federal agency responsible for leading the Nation in addressing juvenile delinquency, crime, and victimization, OJJDP recognizes the need to find solutions to new challenges as they arise. In FY 2000, the Office designed new programs and continued to fund promising programs that address both existing and emerging challenges. OJJDP had many accomplishments during FY 2000, as evidenced by the programs described later in this Report. This chapter gives an overview of OJJDP�s philosophy, approach, and priorities in undertaking these activities.

A Cycle of Activities

OJJDP carries out its leadership role through a cycle of activities that include data collection, research, evaluation, demonstration, training and technical assistance, and dissemination. For example, OJJDP collects and disseminates critical statistics about juvenile arrests, offenders, and victimization. These statistics help both the Office and the juvenile justice field better understand issues affecting juveniles and also help OJJDP determine the types of research that need to be conducted. Some of the research projects that the Office funds are short term; others are longitudinal studies that follow samples of youth over many years. This research provides OJJDP and the Nation with an enormous base of relevant and reliable data. Findings from these research studies often lead to the development of demonstration programs, many of which involve community-based, comprehensive juvenile justice strategies. To ensure that these strategies are working, OJJDP funds evaluations that are conducted with scientific rigor—the Office is currently supporting more than 30 program evaluations. Once OJJDP is confident that a strategy or program works, it sponsors training and technical assistance to help communities across the country replicate the approach. Training and technical assistance are available to policymakers and practitioners on a broad range of juvenile justice topics. OJJDP also provides seed money to States and local governments through formula and block grants to help them implement effective and promising programs to make systemwide improvements in their juvenile justice systems. Finally, through an intense information dissemination strategy that includes printed and electronic products as well as a Web site, OJJDP keeps the field informed about statistics, research findings, and lessons learned.

Building on Lessons Learned

During FY 2000, OJJDP continued to build on lessons learned from past activities. For example, after findings from the Study Group on Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders indicated that most chronic juvenile offenders begin their criminal careers when they are very young, the Office established a Study Group on Very Young Offenders to gain further knowledge about these youth. OJJDP also added another component to its ongoing Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency, a group of three longitudinal studies that are providing the Nation with a rich base of empirical knowledge. One of these studies has followed 1,000 youth from Rochester, NY, and their parents since the youth were in the seventh grade. Many of these youth are now parents, and OJJDP has begun gathering data on their children. This new intergenerational component, which is discussed in detail in the section on Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior, will allow researchers to examine and track behavior over three generations.

Collaboration

For the past several years, OJJDP has stressed the need for State and local agencies, communities, and components of the juvenile justice system to work together to address juvenile crime and victimization. Leading by example, the Office made collaboration the cornerstone of many of the programs it supported in FY 2000. At the heart of these programs is the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders, which is helping States and local communities address juvenile delinquency in a strategic and practical manner. Collaboration guides a number of other programs discussed in this Report, including programs to address drug use, juvenile gun violence, gang violence, truancy, and Internet crimes against children. The Office also is collaborating with other Federal agencies on several critical programs, such as the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, a joint effort of the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice to reduce school violence. To help make limited Federal resources go further, OJJDP also has �piggy-backed� onto existing programs of other agencies to enhance project goals and products—for example, the Office provided funds to the National Institute of Mental Health to add a juvenile justice component to a study of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (see Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder).

Dissemination

Providing information to the field is vital. OJJDP works vigorously to get a full spectrum of information (about research, statistics, promising practices, and emerging concerns and issues) into the hands of those who can use it. Dissemination remained a priority at OJJDP in FY 2000. The Office�s accomplishments in this area included sponsoring a third national juvenile justice conference and developing two new Web sites. OJJDP also produced more than 80 new publications in FY 2000 and established electronic and printed products designed to make information more accessible to the field. For example, a new series of Bulletins extracts pertinent statistics from Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1999 National Report (recognized nationally as an important resource on juvenile delinquency and victimization) and highlights their topical relevance. OJJDP also initiated an online ordering service to make it easier for clients to order documents. These and other dissemination activities are highlighted in chapter 12.

Priority Program Areas

OJJDP administered numerous new program activities during FY 2000, paying special attention to emerging challenges facing the juvenile justice system today. In some cases, the Office built on existing programs with demonstrated effectiveness; in other cases, new, innovative approaches were designed. Priority areas in FY 2000 included the following:

• Gang programs. Research has shown that gang involvement leads to serious delinquency and that gangs have proliferated over the past two decades. In response, OJJDP is supporting a range of initiatives to help prevent and suppress juvenile gang violence, including research and evaluation, training and technical assistance, and information dissemination. These initiatives are discussed in chapter 7.

• Girls� programs. OJJDP took steps to close the �gender gap� in programming by developing two new programs and continuing support of several others that specifically meet the needs of at-risk and delinquent girls. These gender-specific activities are discussed in chapter 8.

• Mental health programs. OJJDP recognizes the need to help the juvenile justice field respond to the mental health problems that face so many system-involved youth today and has collaborated for several years with other Federal agencies on programs to address this issue. In FY 2000, the Office added a new initiative to develop and test a model program to meet the mental health needs of youth who come in contact with the juvenile justice system. The Office also developed a new mental health initiative for tribal youth. OJJDP�s mental health initiatives are discussed in chapter 10.

• Safe Start Initiative. Research suggests that children who are exposed to violence are more prone to commit delinquent and violent acts later in life. OJJDP is helping nine communities reduce the impact of family and community violence on young children by creating a comprehensive system of services. This activity is described in greater detail in Safe Start Initiative.

• Tribal Youth Program. OJJDP is helping American Indian and Alaska Native communities across the country strengthen their juvenile justice systems and develop programs to meet the needs of at-risk tribal youth and their families. These initiatives are highlighted in chapter 9.

Program Solicitations and Peer Reviews

Many of the programs that OJJDP supported in FY 2000 were funded through a competitive application process. It was, in fact, a busy year, as OJJDP issued solicitations for 22 discretionary-funded programs and received 1,133 applications in response. Several of the program announcements resulted in hundreds of applications: for example, the Drug-Free Communities Support Program received more than 200 applications and the Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP) more than 500. To ensure that only the highest quality programs are funded, OJJDP conducts an intense peer review of all eligible applications for competitive discretionary funding. Peer reviewers include practitioners, researchers, and academicians from the public and private sectors. During FY 2000, the Office convened 73 peer review panels to evaluate applications for funding for 22 programs. A total of 214 reviewers served on the panels. (Typically, a panel consists of 3 reviewers and considers 10 applications.)

Conclusion

The philosophy OJJDP used to guide its programming in FY 2000 focused on solidifying the gains achieved in reducing the rate of juvenile arrests and emphasized the importance of continuing the beneficial programs and effective intervention efforts currently under way. By supporting a cycle of activities—research and statistics; program development, testing, and demonstration; replication; training and technical assistance; and information dissemination—the Office was able to help put practitioners and policymakers in a better position to make informed choices about programs and approaches to best serve their States and communities.