Wealth of Research from Center for Juvenile Justice Reform

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Georgetown University's Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, led by Director Shay Bilchik, has published a number of research studies that tackle a wide variety of juvenile justice issues.  We've highlighted a few of the best below.  Be sure to check out the Center's website for many more resources. Improving the Effectiveness of Juvenile Justice Programs: A New Perspective on Evidence-Based Practice
Addressing the Unmet Educational Needs of Children and Youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems
Supporting Youth In Transition to Adulthood:  Lessons Learned from Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice
Racial and Ethnic Disparity and Disproportionality in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice: A Compendium
Bridging Two Worlds: Youth Involved in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems, A Policy Guide for Improving Outcomes

Witnessing Violence Creates Violent Kids, Study Says

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Children who witness violence often think it is normal, a development that can lead to violent behavior, says a new study in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. The researchers, who surveyed 800 children between the ages of 8 and 12, asked the children if they had witnessed violence on television, at home or at school.  Six months later they were polled a second time.  Children who said they had witnessed violence were aggressive, according to the study. "People exposed to a heavy diet of violence come to believe that aggression is a normal way to solve conflict and get what you want in life,” the study’s authors wrote.  “These beliefs lower their inhibitions against aggression against others." The full study is available by subscription only, but you can read more at ScienceDaily.

Benjamin Chambers: What Works with Serious Juvenile Offenders – Pathways to Desistance Study

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Does the juvenile justice system really work? Reading comments from readers on news stories about youth in trouble, you'd think the juvenile justice sysem was a system designed to mollycoddle dangerous kids, turning them into super-predators. Nothing could be further from the truth. Among other reasons, we know this because of "Pathways to Desistance," a research study led by Edward P. Mulvey, Director of the Law and Psychiatry Program at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. (Dr. Mulvey and Carol Schubert contributed a post to us on their findings in April 2010.)

The "Pathways to Desistance" research study is a unique study of what works in the juvenile justice system.

Depressed Dads More Likely to Spank Says New Study

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Fathers suffering from depression are more likely to spank their children and less likely to read to them, a new study finds.  The research, published in Pediatrics, found that 41 percent of fathers with depression hit their child in the last month, nearly three times as frequently as fathers who weren’t depressed,  ScienceDaily reported. The University of Michigan Health System study looked at 1,746 fathers of one-year-old children.  Of those, 7 percent were diagnosed with depression.  Depressed fathers were also less likely to read to their children.  Forty-one percent of depressed dads read to their kids at least three times per week compared with 58 percent of fathers without depression. "This study is important because it demonstrates that depression in fathers has very tangible effects on how those fathers interact with their young children," said Sarah Clark, one of the authors of the study. You can read more information here.

The Brain May Be the Key to Criminality

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The brains of criminals are biologically different from those of the general population, according to new research. In one study, researchers scanned the brains of 21 people with anti-social personality disorder, a condition that often leaves people with no sense of right or wrong.  The scans showed certain portions of the brains were smaller on average for those with the disorder than those without. Other studies showed deformations and smaller overall brain sizes in those with severe anti-social personality disorder. These and other studies were recently covered in a story by  Foxnews.com. Researchers say that many of these differences can be spotted in the brains of children who are very young, but they also say the traits are not  fixed but can be corrected.

Most Juvenile Cases Involve Younger Teens

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There were 1,666,100 delinquency cases processed across the nation in 2007.  54% involved children younger than 16.   27% involved girls, and 64% involved white youngsters.   For a wealth of data check out  The National Juvenile Court Data Archive and its annual report on  Juvenile Court Statistics 2006-2007