An Evaluation of Teen Court as a Juvenile Crime Diversion Program

Theories of procedural justice support the American legal system's search for a fair and effective means of diverting offenders from the juvenile court system. Teen Court programs, in which juvenile offenders are tried and sentenced by a jury of peers, are one of the latest developments in attempts to positively influence offenders and direct them free of crime. The present research found that participation in Teen Court increased offenders' legal knowledge and enhanced their attitudes toward some authority figures (i.e., the judge) and themselves to a greater extent than non‐offending juveniles. In addition, only 12.6 percent of juvenile offenders re‐offended within five months of their initial Teen Court involvement. Improved attitudes toward authority and self were associated with a lower incidence of recidivism. Overall, these results contribute to the growing literature indicating that Teen Court can be an effective juvenile crime diversion program. This article also discusses methodological issues for future program evaluations.     

Teen Court: What Jurors Can Tell Us About the Process

Teen courts are on the increase throughout the United States. These courts provide an opportunity for youth offenders to receive sentences from their adolescent peers rather than from an adult panel or judge. Yet, we know t very little about the teen jurors' perspective or whether their sentences reflect restorative justice principles. In more than 100 youth juror surveys, t teens describe their experiences as they develop sentences consistent with restorative justice tenets. Through their participation, youth jurors gain practical knowledge about and respect for the judicial system. The efficacy of the sentences is validated by high offender sentence completion.     

Public Opinion of Teen,Classroom, and Formal Court Styles

The present research examined the views of a community sample regarding teen court, classroom court, and formal/traditional court. Participants read vignettes of teen offenders who had committed crimes of high or low severity and were given relatively severe or mild sentences through one of the three courts. Results revealed stronger support for teen court than the other courts, a general preference for harsh sentences, and a preference for match between crime and punishment. The results of this study indicate that teen courts are seen as providing an appropriate means to sentence juvenile offenders and are likely to receive public support for their continued operation.     

Declines in Crime and Teen Childbearing: Identifying Potential Explanations for Contemporaneous Trends

Objectives

The previous 25 years have witnessed remarkable upheavals in the social landscape of the United States. Two of the most notable trends have been dramatic declines in levels of crime as well as teen childbearing. Much remains unknown about the underlying conditions that might be driving these changes. More importantly, we do not know if the same distal factors that are responsible for the drop in crime rates are similarly implicated in falling rates of teen births. We examine four overarching potential explanations: fluctuations in economic opportunity, shifting population demographics, differences in state-level public policies, and changes in expectations regarding health and mortality.

Methods

We combine state and year-specific data from existing secondary sources to model trajectories of violent crime and teen fertility over a 20-year period from 1990 to 2010 using simultaneous fixed-effects regression models.

Results

We find that 4 of the 20 predictors examined—growth in the service sector of the labor market, increasing racial diversity especially among Hispanics, escalating levels of migration, and the expansion of family planning services to low-income women—offer the most convincing explanations for why rates of violent crime and teen births have been steadily decreasing over time. Moreover, we are able to account for almost a quarter of the joint declines in violent crime and teen births.

Conclusions

Our conclusions underscore the far reaching effects that aggregate level demographic conditions and policies are likely to have on important social trends that might, at first glance, seem unrelated. Furthermore, the effects of policy efforts designed to target outcomes in one area are likely to spill over into other domains.

     

论青少年集团犯罪成因及解决途径

针对当今世界青少年犯罪中的集团化趋势,分析了青少年集团犯罪的社会成因,探索了其社会、教育及法律方面的解决途径,并提出在法律上通过时间上的限制、空间上的分离以及缓刑制度的开展来解决这一问题的一些建议。     

虐待犯罪的审理路径和要点

虐待犯罪的认定,首先要确认行为人实施了为实现控制目的而对家庭成员的身体和精神进行摧残、折磨的虐待行为,不能将虐待行为简单等同于对家庭成员的打骂;其次要全面审查虐待行为的次数、手段、对象、损害结果等情节,当情节之一达到应科处刑罚的程度即构成虐待罪。虐待犯罪中出现受害人自杀致死的,应当审查虐待与自杀之间的关系,特别是受害人自杀的时间、过程、方式和死亡原因。当虐待犯罪与自杀客观上存在引起的条件关系,并能排除其他介入因素影响,则成立虐待罪的结果加重犯。     

Transforming Teens: Measuring the Effects of Restorative Justice Principles in a Teen Court Setting

This paper examines the impact of restorative justice principles in a teen court setting. Specifically, our research attempts to quantitatively measure learning of certain restorative justice principles through the teen court process by comparing matched, pre‐ and post‐survey responses to questions involving the adolescent's ability to understand their crime as a violation of relationships within their community, as opposed to merely a violation of law. Qualitative responses regarding the efficacy of the teen court program from both teen participants and their parents are also examined in the context of restorative justice principles. Finally, the efficacy of the teen court model is discussed in terms of recidivism rates compared to teens who do not experience the teen court process.     

Crime trends and the effect of mandated drug treatment: Evidence from California's Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act

The Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act (SACPA), implemented statewide in California in July 2001, mandates drug treatment rather than incarceration for certain nonviolent drug offenders. Critics of the legislation suggest that crime increased as a result of the legislation, but researchers have largely ignored this issue. Utilizing time series methodology applied across several independent data sets from Orange County, California, the effects of SACPA on crime were assessed. Results indicate that significant increases in commercial burglaries and paraphernalia arrests may have been attributed to SACPA, but the overall pattern does not support a conclusion that crime increased markedly.     

Gender Differences in Child Abuse and Intergenerational Transmission of Crime and Substance Abuse among Israeli Inmates

The aim of this study was to examine the gender differences in various types of childhood abuse and family history of crime, substance abuse, and mental health problems. Our study was conducted among 110 Israeli female and male inmates (50 female and 60 male inmates). The findings indicated a higher rate of multiple types of childhood abuse among the female inmates compared with the male inmates. The findings also revealed that female inmates reported more prevalence of parents’ substance abuse, crime, and family’s mental health problems than the male inmates did. Moreover, the female inmates reported higher rates of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse associated with family history variables compared with the male inmates. Furthermore, the findings indicated that female inmates whose siblings were involved in substance abuse and crime reported higher rates of sexual and emotional abuse compared with the male inmates. We discussed the implications of these findings.     

The International Criminal Court and the Control of State Crime: Prospects and Problems

Over the past two decades, crimes committed by nation states has received strong theoretical and empirical attention from critical criminologists. Much of this work has highlighted the lack of internal and external mechanisms to control such injurious behavior. Potentially, this has now changed. In the summer of 1998, delegates from nearly 140 countries created the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC). Entering into force in the summer of 2002, the ICC has unprecedented international jurisdiction over the crimes of genocide, war, aggression, and those against humanity. This paper provides a brief history of international law and attempts to develop an ICC. It then examines the functioning and structure of the ICC as established in the Rome Statute. We then proceed to analyze the potential which the ICC posses to control state criminality. Our analysis concludes with discussions of how the ICC might be modified to better act as a deterrent to such offending.     

政府犯罪：研究国家国际犯罪的新视角

基于国际社会面对国家犯罪与国家刑事责任的争论,简要介绍政府犯罪观念产生的背景、初步概念、独立性及政府刑事责任双罚制;着重分析政府犯罪与国家犯罪的关系;得出尽管政府在国家不法行为和国际犯罪中扮演重要的角色,但政府犯罪不能完全等同于国家犯罪这一结论.在现有的国家责任体系中,建立政府刑事责任制度,具有法理和实践层面的可行性,符合国际社会现实状况.     

错位与归位:滥用职权罪立法的检讨与重构

对于修订后的刑法所新设的滥用职权罪,目前主流的观点认为其是故意犯罪,但相关的论证实难令人信服。合理的思路或许是区分不同的层面进行解读:从实然的角度分析,现行刑法中确立的滥用职权罪是过失犯罪;但从应然的角度反思,滥用职权罪的正确定位应是故意犯罪。为此,应当通过立法修正的形式对其进行理性重构。     

Case-Based Deliberation in Cases of Child Abuse: an Innovative Way to Cooperate Between Justice and Care

A lack of communication between care workers, police officers, judicial officials and medical professionals can obstruct a fast and efficient approach of child abuse. This problem inspired a pilot project called ‘the Courage Protocol’, which was introduced as an experiment in the legal district of Antwerp, Flanders (Belgium). The most important novelty in this project is the case-based deliberation between care workers, medical professionals and judiciary officials, as this implies an actual encounter between these representatives in which relevant information is shared and possible ways to approach specific cases are discussed. Based on a scientific evaluation of this deliberative practice, this article discusses its potential as an innovative way of cooperation between justice and care.     

Post-Separation Abuse of Women and their Children: Boundary-Setting and Family Court Utilization among Victimized Mothers

Continued abuse of themselves and their children is a concern for many mothers leaving intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrating husbands. This research examines women’s responses to abuse committed by ex-husbands with whom they had undergone custody disputes. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with 19 mothers who had divorced IPV-perpetrating husbands between 1 and 3 years prior. Participants were located through publicly available family court divorce records and interviews were examined using analytic induction. Women’s strategies to protect themselves and their children from abuse involved setting boundaries to govern their interactions with ex-husbands. Mothers often turned to family court for assistance in setting boundaries to keep children safe, but found that family court did not respond in ways they believed protected their children. Conversely, when women turned to the justice system for restraining orders or called the police for help against IPV, they generally found the justice system responsive.