Juvenile Justice - Science topic

University should build partnerships with these institutions and engage in research related to the programs they offer such as those in Humanities and Education to inform best practice for this population.

Best regards,

Debra

Dear Jeffrey, here are some links to somewhat older studies;

I may be wrong, but I do not think there are norms or a Manual as such for this measure. In case you don't have it, I'm attaching the original article from the American Sociological Review in which it was presented. It appears that the score is simply the sum of all "delinquent" acts reported by the test-taker. So, for example, it I wrote that I had been drunk in public 10 times, begged for money 8 times, and skipped school 14 times (but no other delinquent acts), my total score would be 10+8+14 = 32. There is no conversion to a standard score or percentile. (Even if there was, those norms would be badly out of date by now!)

The authors do discuss the possibility of assigning different "weights" to different delinquent acts, and they seem to believe that this might sometimes be a good idea. In other words, you might feel that actions such as rape, robbery, and arson are more important, more deviant, than acts like skipping school or smoking marijuana, and place more weight on those incidents when they do occur. But as far as I can see, that isn't what the authors themselves did in their original study. You'd have to decide this for yourself, arrive at a reasonable weighting (in consultation with your colleagues), and describe this in your paper. Or just stay with the "one incident, one point" approach.

Dear Gerald and Jose

You are not really surprised, are you? This phenomenon is illustrated by the following example (cited from http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/moral-hazard):

"You have not insured your house from any future damages. It implies that a loss will be completely borne by you at the time of a mishappening [sic] like fire or burglary. Hence you will show extra care and attentiveness. You will install high tech burglar alarms and hire watchmen to avoid any unforeseen event.

But if your house is insured for its full value, then if anything happens you do not really lose anything. Therefore, you have less incentive to protect against any mishappening. In this case, the insurance firm bears the losses and the problem of moral hazard arises."

Moral hazard, as the reaction to insurance is called, has been mentioned many times in recent years in discussions in the United States about problems that might arise (extra burden on the provision of medical assistance) as a result of state-funded medical insurance. A Swedish study found evidence that calling in sick from the job became less frequent when workers' compensation for sick leave were reduced (   ). Moral hazard has also been noticed by several other analysts,  like Boyer, M. and Dionne, G. (1987). The economics of road safety. Transportation Research-B, 21B, 413-431; Worrall, J.D. (198).

Others reported that increases in workers’ compensation payments for injuries may increase the rate of workplace accidents. (Worrall, J.D. (1983). Safety and the workforce: Incentives and disincentives in workers’ compensation. ILR Press, New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University).

Phrased in simple terms: to offer people protection against the consequences of risky behaviour encourages risky behaviour; to offer people better protection against the consequences of risky behaviour encourages riskier behaviour still.

Automobile and other insurance sells peace of mind, which is nice, but it is also a problem for that very reason. This is, as mentioned earlier, why automobile insurance at one time was forbidden by law in some countries.

This is not to say that we should not have automobile insurance, but obviously the consequences should be seriously considered and insurance practices should take them into account.

You could read Sykes and Matza (1957) Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency. American Sociological Review, Vol. 22, No. 6 (Dec., 1957), pp. 664-670

Or look at subcultura theory, anomie, deviance amplification and moral panics. Cohen's Folk Devils and Moral Panics  (1972) is a good start.

However, none of these will show you that juveniles commit more crime. They are theories which try to explain why juvenile delinquency exits. You could also look at some masculinity theories (Messerchmidt, Connel). 

Hope this helps!

Dear Dewedi,

There are two aspects legal maturity and social maturity. With regard tolegal maturity I will support the answer of Krishna Pal Malik. You need to draw all the legislation and compare to draw a line. With regard to achievement of 'social maturity' you need to look into social researcher, especially education ones and ritual practices among the community.

I adopted this approachto discussed the Albanian juvenile maturity.

I haven't looked to India Juvenile Justice Act. However as Krishna numerates it looks like is falling under the general patern of implementation a patchmark in response perhaps to the comments on country report by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

P.S. You may want to take a look at the company that provides this service: www.lifeline.org.uk

Hello Paul

Have you seen these papers?

Keating, L. M., Tomishima, M. A., Foster, S., & Alessandri, M. (2002). The effects of a mentoring program on at-risk youth. ADOLESCENCE-SAN DIEGO-, 37, 717-734.

Zimmerman, M. A., Bingenheimer, J. B., & Notaro, P. C. (2002). Natural mentors and adolescent resiliency: A study with urban youth. American journal of community psychology, 30(2), 221-243.

DuBois, D. L., & Silverthorn, N. (2005). Natural mentoring relationships and adolescent health: Evidence from a national study. American journal of public health, 95(3), 518-524.

This is a meta-analysis, but might have some useful references:

Rhodes, J. E. (2008). Improving youth mentoring interventions through research-based practice. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(1-2), 35-42.

Very best wishes

Mary

Try here:

Broidy et al. 2003 Developmental Trajectories of Childhood Disruptive Behaviors and Adolescent Delinquency: A Six-Site, Cross-National Study

This has the scales 75% of way through article

Also:

Negriff et al. 2011 Exposure to peer delinquency as a mediator between self-report pubertal timing and delinquency: A longitudinal study of mediation

If there isn't, there should be some. The federal government provides grants for that area of deviance. Apply for one.

Dear Smith

Reliability is the internal consistency among the items that represent one dimension/variable. There are two general categories of reliability coefficients, (1) based on longitudinal data (e.g., the test-retest reliability coefficient) and (2) based on cross-sectional data (e.g., internal consistency reliability coefficients and equivalence reliability coefficients). By far the most commonly used reliability coefficient is coefficient alpha (Cronbach 1951), an estimator of internal consistency. See the attached paper, meta analysed the Cronbach alpha coefficient papers. 

Aktar

The response by governmental agencies to this issue will vary across jurisdictions. Some states, counties, or cities have more sophisticated mental health services. In California, AB109 passed by the legislature, essentially released thousands of state prisoners to the counties. This resulted in immense pressure on county agencies to develop and implement programs to reduce recidivism as they have inadequate jail space and other program slots. Reducing recidivism is now a high priority. The San Bernardino County Probation Department has implemented day reporting centers for probationers, Interestingly, the County Behavioral Health Department has service providers in these centers. There is no research on the effectiveness of these mental health services nor the number of people using center services. This is an area that is in need of research.

Learning Disability was the term used for intellectual disability in the UK till very recently. It is more commonly used to mean specific learning problems (dyslexia, Math). It would help the readers if you are able to specify which definition of learning disabilities you are referring to.

Whichever construct you refer to it has an association with JD. Here are few older articles

Comorbidity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder with conduct, depressive, anxiety, and other disorders

Thanks, Billy. 

Great answers are given so far. Let me add a few other twists. How will individuals' ' motivations be measured to want to succeed after being incarcerated. Other than technical skills, what life skills are being taught after incarceration. Life skills include what is happening today that was not happening before incarceration. How do individuals get involved with people moving in positive directions as opposed to negative directions (towards incarceration)? How does one remain on the track of associating with positive people and activities? What is available to help people who have been incarcerated remain on track?

Peggy

Based on my experience, there can be several approaches taken on the question that you pose? Here is a journal article that I found informative and I believe addresses your question. Having spent the better part of my career with juveniles, most are environmentally based.. Here is one of many journal articles that may assist you..