The Violent Female Juvenile Offender: An Ignored Minority Within the Juvenile Justice System

Little attention is given to the violent female adolescent. While there is no argument that males commit most of the violent crimes (both juveniles and adults), violent females may demand the attention of policy-makers and administrators. Historically there has been a lack of program offerings for these offenders. This article examines violent female adolescent offenders referred to the Clark County (Las Vegas, Nevada) Juvenile Court Services in two different years (1985 and 1988). This examination includes a review of programs and alternatives for these offenders and a review of what is currently being done by the juvenile justice system to accommodate this population. Dispositions and programmatic treatment offerings for violent adolescent males and females are compared. Recommendations are offered for the juvenile justice system for consideration.     

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act: Federal Leadership in State Reform

The policies advanced by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, while generally viewed as a success, are seen by some as a failure that may even abet juveniles in the commission of crime. After tracing the evolution of federal juvenile justice legislation and examining arrest and treatment data, the authors confront the criticisms aimed at the Act, and find reason for considerable optimism. Nationwide, the number, proportion, and rate of juvenile arrests have fallen more than the juvenile population, and many states appear to have made substantial progress in improving the processing and treatment of juveniles. The authors conclude that the Act is a continuing source of federal leadership for state innovation.     

Student Perceptions of Juvenile Offender Accounts in Criminal Justice Education

In criminal justice programs, a major teaching objective is to expose students to the wide range of experiences and career paths available in criminal justice. Technological advances increase instructional strategies so that students may gain more realistic educational experience and correct erroneous perceptions about the criminal justice system. This paper describes one such strategy for online criminal justice students, a virtual prison tour, founded on the principles of social learning, experiential learning, and e-learning. In an upperclass course in juvenile delinquency, 43 students viewed a video of incarcerated juvenile offenders recounting their experiences of institutionalization, sentences, challenges, programming, and fears upon release. Student responses to seven quantitative questions and one qualitative question revealed that the video greatly impacted their attitudes, understanding, and perceptions of the juvenile justice system and provided pedagogical benefits. This strategy can be used to help criminal justice educators enhance student learning so that students experience a major aspect of the juvenile justice system.     

Quaker Origins of Juvenile Justice Reform

This study traces the contributions of the Society of Friends-Quakers-to the earliest efforts directed at reform in the juvenile justice system. Although it is generally settled that Quakers were the founders of the American penitentiary and that Quaker principles have contributed to reform in the adult prisons system in America, the Quaker contributions to the development of humane treatment for children accused of crime have been obscured. The first attempt in America to remove children from adult prisons and to recognize their special status in the justice system resulted from the humanitarian efforts of early 19th century Quakers to understand and ameliorate the problem of poverty. Their investigations led to the founding of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquency, the first American voluntary association solely concerned with delinquency and the problems associated with juvenile crime.     

Discretionary Justice: Decision Making in a State Juvenile Parole Board

The literature in Criminal Justice is replete with commentary on both the virtues and injustices associated with adult parole board decision-making. There has been far less attention paid to juvenile parole boards in part because so few of them exist. Institutional release decisions in most states still remain the purview of juvenile institutional staff members. This paper examines parole Authority decision-making in a citizen-dominated state juvenile parole board. The paper focuses on the conduct of hearings, dispositional guidelines, criteria used by board members in decision-making and the advocacy role of parole officers and institutional staff. The influence of deinstitutionalization and least restrictive policies on parole Authority decision making is also discussed. During recent years, the literature in criminal justice has become replete with commentary on the virtues and injustices associated with parole board decision-making. Consequently, many questions have been raised about disparate sentences, the criteria used by parole boards in making decisions, unstructured discretion, and the pressing need for guidelines and statistically accurate parole prediction instruments. The intent of this paper is to examine parole decision-making in a state juvenile parole board where individualized treatment and rehabilitation have been long standing goals. The paper focuses upon the criteria used by board members in decision-making, the conduct of hearings, the guideline system used to determine a recommended length of confinement and the advocacy role of parole officers and institutional staff. The influence of deinstitutionalization and least restrictive policies on parole board decision-making is also discussed. The author is presently completing the second year of a two-year appointment as a member of the Parole Authority under discussion. Since December, 1983, the author has continuously observed and participated in approximately 300 individual parole hearings over thirty-seven hearing days.     

The New York State Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1980: a legislative experiment

Through a statistical analysis of major changes in postacquittal procedures of the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1980 (IDRA 1980), the study reveals the Act's success in formalizing, regularizing, juridicizing, accelerating, and extending to all acquittees psychiatric examinations and review and release procedures. Although more persons are reviewed and released at postacquittal hearings than in the matched pre-1980 cohort, fewer enter nonsecure facilities at commitment or during first 18 months of hospitalization, and fewer are released at the six-month review. After 18 months more acquittees remain inmates in secure facilities. Interviews with leading figures in the formulation and enactment of IDRA provide retrospective and prospective judgments on insanity defense reform issues.     

国家亲权理论与少年司法——以美国少年司法为中心的研究

国家亲权理论是英美法系国家少年司法制度的基本理论根基,它强调国家对未成年人的积极保护责任,要求超越报应主义观念,遵循"未成年人最大利益原则"来处理少年罪错行为。国家亲权理论对于克服刑事古典学派的弊端,推动少年司法制度的进步发挥了重要的作用。但国家亲权理论在少年司法中的应用容易产生理念与实践之间的落差,如何缩小这种落差是英美国家少年司法改革的重要特征。中国的少年司法政策与国家亲权理论存在一定的类同之处,在今后的少年司法改革中应当注意吸收国家亲权理论与英美国家少年司法整合历程中的经验与教训。     

New York State of Mind: Parental Incarceration and Children's Visitation in New York State

The incarceration of a parent has a variety of negative effects on a child's psychological, academic, and developmental success. Children can end up in foster care as a result of the state terminating parental rights due to the parent's incarceration. Despite imprisonment of their parent(s), maintenance of visitation with the parent(s) is still important for their children. However, not all prisons have visitation programs that are suitable to visiting children. This Note proposes a model state statute that will recognize the importance of visitation, implement “child friendly” visitation programs, facilitate training for prison staff, and provide transportation for children in major cities to the prison facilities.     

The Justice Model in the Juvenile Justice System: Washington State's Experience

In 1977, the Washington State Legislature enacted radical modifications of its juvenile justice code. Explicitly abandoning the parens patriae philosophy of the juvenile justice system, a "justice" philosophy was adopted. Provisions of the law include a determinate sentencing structure, the divestiture of status offenses, greater due process rights for juveniles, and a formalized diversion process which emphasizes accountability rather than treatment. This paper brings together the available research on the implementation of the law to assess how the introduction of a justice approach has influenced equality, fairness, and punishment levels in Washington State's juvenile justice system.