Youth violence: an exploratory study of a treatment program in a central Illinois county

A local treatment provider has developed an OPTIONS program to prevent adolescent aggression. The program is designed for youths who displayed threatening or abusive behaviors, particularly toward family members. This study described the characteristics of juveniles and their families who were referred to the program and if the program participation helped reduce the severity of violence and improve the communication skills among program participants. Referrals came from law enforcement, juvenile court services, school resource officers, and parents. Information on 100 juveniles and their families were provided by the counselors of the program. The findings showed that a large percentage of juveniles came from unstable families with a family history of criminal convictions, substance abuse, or mental illness. Program participants showed an improvement in communication skills and reduction in their levels of dangerousness.     

Congress and the political expansion of the U.S. districts courts

Expanding the number of U.S. district judgeships is often justifiedas a response to expanding caseloads. Increasing judgeshipsduring unified government, however, allows Congress and thePresident to engage in political (patronage and ideological)control of the federal district courts. This paper examinesempirically the relative importance of caseload pressure andpolitical motives for Congress to expand the number of federaldistrict judgeships. We demonstrate that politics dominatesthe timing of judgeship expansion in the U.S. District Courts.We also show that both politics and caseload affect the actualsize of those timed expansions. In particular, we find thatbefore 1970, Congress seemed to have strong political motivationsfor the size of an expansion. After 1970, Congress became muchmore attentive to caseload considerations.