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.     

IMPACT OF A YOUTH SERVICE CENTER

The influences of a Youth Service Center are assessed in two South Philadelphia police districts and two pairs of selected comparison districts, using Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Youth Center's caseload arrest data. UCR data indicate a slight change in arrest rates within the selected target districts and fluctuating rates within comparison districts. Data for Youth Center Clients show a 26% decrease in arrests during a oneyear period, particularly for white youths. but analysis of other important factors that may have an impact on arrest rates suggests thar it is impossible at this time to demonstrate that the Youth Service Center is significantly decreasing official juvenile delinquency.     

ARREST TRAJECTORIES ACROSS A 17‐YEAR SPAN FOR YOUNG MEN: RELATION TO DUAL TAXONOMIES AND SELF‐REPORTED OFFENSE TRAJECTORIES*

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of different operationalizations of offending behavior on the identified trajectories of offending and to relate findings to hypothesized dual taxonomy models. Prior research with 203 young men from the Oregon Youth Study identified six offender pathways, based on self‐report data (Wiesner and Capaldi, 2003). The current study used official records data (number of arrests) for the same sample. Semiparametric groupbased modeling indicated three distinctive arrest trajectories: high‐level chronics, low‐level chronics, and rare offenders. Both chronic arrest trajectory groups were characterized by relatively equal rates of early onset offenders, which indicates, therefore, some divergence from hypothesized dual taxonomies. Overall, this study demonstrated limited convergence of trajectory findings across official records versus selfreport measures of offending behavior.     

The Effects of Assessment Quality on Revenue Volatility

This paper examines the relationships between assessment quality, property tax revenue volatility, and other revenue volatility using panel data of all 100 counties in North Carolina between 2003 and 2007. Findings suggest that characteristics of the property tax base are the most important predictors of property tax revenue volatility among counties over time. Specifically, increases in assessed value and years in which a mass revaluation occurs are most influential in determining property tax revenue volatility. The second stage of analysis reveals that population, nontax revenue dependence, property tax dependence, and assessment quality have the greatest influences on volatility of other revenues among counties over time. The effect of assessment quality on nonproperty tax revenue volatility is conditional upon a county's property tax dependence.     

Guns vs. Taxes? A Look at How Defense Spending Affects U.S. Federal Tax Policy

Although studies have shown a theoretical and empirical link between defense spending and economic growth and between economic growth and tax policy, the impact of defense spending on federal tax policy remains largely unexplored. This paper proposes a theoretical model and empirical test to explore the direct and indirect effects of defense spending on federal tax policy. The findings suggest that consumption expenditures for national defense directly influence the federal corporate income tax rate. However, the analysis finds no indirect relationship between defense spending and federal tax policy mediated through economic growth.