Juvenile and Family Court Journal最新文献

Few scholars have examined early adolescent attachment in child welfare, where placement is a necessary but forced attachment disruption. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to examine the responses of 18- to 24-year-olds (n = 83) who had been in out-of-home care, comparing early adolescent versus non-early adolescent placement, placement setting, and sibling accessibility on attachment. Results showed early adolescents were almost half as likely to be securely attached postplacement than other age ranges and the importance of family-like placements and maintaining peer relationships.

We investigated the interaction of mental health needs and race and ethnicity on juvenile justice placement decisions. Mental health diagnoses and placement decisions were collected for a large (n = 9765) sample of justice-involved youth in the state of Texas from 2007 to 2008. Analyses revealed Black and Hispanic youth were overrepresented in secure facilities, although race and ethnicity were not predictive of disposition decisions beyond legal variables. Substance use interacted with race and ethnicity such that Black and Hispanic youth with substance use diagnoses were less likely than non-Hispanic White youth to be placed in secure settings. Youth with internalizing or externalizing mental health diagnoses received similar placement decisions regardless of race or ethnicity. Findings are in contrast to prior investigations of the interaction of race/ethnicity and mental health needs on placement decisions, perhaps due to the use of mental health diagnoses in the current study rather than other indicators of mental health need. Future research should investigate potential bias present within psychosocial evaluations and resulting mental health diagnoses within the juvenile justice system to inform their utility in the placement decision-making process, and how these social identities interact to influence each step along the juvenile justice system pathway to identify potential points of biased decision making that may compound the adverse effects of juvenile justice system involvement for youth.

Recent political events have brought renewed attention to the adaptation of immigrants in the United States, and their involvement in crime. Immigrants vary significantly in terms of when they migrate into the country. According to the Current Population Survey (CPS) (2017), of the population of approximately 13 million foreign-born immigrant children living in the United States, approximately 40% arrived during early childhood, 30% during middle childhood, and 30% during adolescence. A better understanding of the relationship between age at migration and offending can inform not only immigration policies, and policies related to the control of crime, but also policies related to immigrant-receiving institutions such as schools and social services. Using data from The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), this study explores the influence of age at migration on criminal offending among foreign-born immigrants who migrated prior to adulthood.

Justice-involved youth (JIY) experience extremely high prevalence rates of trauma prior to their involvement in the juvenile justice system. Trauma outcomes are heterogeneous, long-term, and may influence JIY outcomes. Although specific evidence-based treatments (EBTs) target trauma symptoms, few studies have examined treatment outcomes in relation to adolescent populations, and even fewer have examined treatment outcomes in relation to JIY. This review examines evidence supporting the effectiveness of trauma-focused treatments with JIY. The existing literature suggests trauma-focused interventions may be a promising avenue for improving both mental health and juvenile justice outcomes for JIY. Clinical practice and policy implications are discussed.

In the United States, approximately 34% to 36% of juveniles (those under age 17) processed in the court system in 2018 were Black (Abrams et al., 2021). This article examines the dynamics of race with incarcerated Black adolescents. Black adolescents who have been or are incarcerated face similar systemic challenges as any other adolescent and must also be mindful of re-entry into their communities. These challenges are multifaceted and dually complex when an adolescent is both incarcerated and Black. A literary review is provided then intersections of the topics are discussed to conceptualize and provide practical applications. Clinical implications for therapists are offered to practitioners working in the juvenile justice system.

This study examines patterns of victimization among youth in residential placement facilities using data from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement. Findings indicate that gang involvement in residential placement is associated with multiple forms of victimization. However, desistance from gang membership resulted in rates of victimization among gang members that were no different from those of youth who had never been involved in gangs. These findings support prior research showing that gang involvement does not appear to serve as a protective function and further specifies the nature and contexts of the relationship between gang association and victimization.

This article revisits the 1839 Pennsylvania Supreme Court case Ex parte Crouse in light of new historical information. While most legal scholars and historians have analyzed Ex parte Crouse with the assumption that Mary Ann Crouse was sent to the Philadelphia House of Refuge without committing any crime, a search at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania revealed the existence of Crouse's admission record detailing how she had killed a two-year-old child. This finding undermines the extensive conclusions that scholars have drawn about the case's significance and highlights the importance of archival work in legal studies.

From 2017 through 2022, while the Indian Child Welfare Act (“ICWA”) was under direct constitutional attack from Texas, state courts around the country continued hearing appeals on ICWA with virtually no regard for the decision-making happening in Haaland v. Brackeen in the federal courts. For practitioners following or working on both sets of cases, this duality felt surreal, as they practiced their daily work under an existential threat. The data in this article draw from the authors' previous publications providing annual updates on ICWA appeals, and now include cases through 2021. It provides a description of appellate data trends across this time period, as well as for each year, while also highlighting key appellate decisions from jurisdictions across the country. Perhaps what this article demonstrates more than any single thing is the amount that ICWA is a part of child welfare practitioners' daily lives now, in a way that will be difficult to upend, regardless of the Supreme Court's ultimate decision.

Despite the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) more than four decades ago, little is known about how or how well it is being implemented into practice by the state courts or how implementation may be related to improved outcomes for Indian children and families. This study explores how ICWA implementation in five state court sites is related to case outcomes. One hundred and fifty-one ICWA cases were reviewed for factors including active efforts findings, tribal presence at hearings, use of qualified expert witness (QEW) testimony, notice, and confirmation of ICWA status. Results are mixed. Specific ICWA implementation measures and aggregate measures were mostly not related to outcomes, but early implementation, such as having the tribe present at the first hearing, did appear related to timely permanency. Implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.

Since the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), state and county human service systems have struggled to implement its provisions in a manner that incorporates the spirit and the letter of the law. This article provides a descriptive overview of a jurisdictionally specific tribal-state partnership team's adaptation of Institutional Analysis, a needs assessment methodology developed by Praxis International, as an alternative methodology to compliance measurement and to identify needs in ICWA implementation. We share a description of our process and experience, our theory of change for human services systems seeking to improve their treatment of American Indian families, and provide some lessons from our experience.