Justice Policy Reform for High-Risk Juveniles: Using Science to Achieve Large-Scale Crime Reduction
Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Forthcoming
58 Pages Posted: 30 Jan 2014 Last revised: 24 Feb 2014
There are 2 versions of this paper
Justice Policy Reform for High-Risk Juveniles: Using Science to Achieve Large-Scale Crime Reduction
Justice Policy Reform for High-Risk Juveniles: Using Science to Achieve Large-Scale Crime Reduction
Date Written: January 28, 2014
Abstract
After a distinctly punitive era, a period of remarkable reform in juvenile crime regulation has begun. Practical urgency has fueled interest in both crime reduction and research on the prediction and malleability of criminal behavior. In this rapidly changing context, high-risk youth - the small proportion of the population where crime is concentrated - present a conundrum. Research indicates that these are precisely the individuals to intensively treat to maximize crime reduction, but there are both real and imagined barriers to doing so. Institutional placement or criminal court processing can exclude these youths from interventions that would better protect public safety. In this article, we synthesize relevant research to help resolve this challenge in a manner that is consistent with the law’s core principles. In our view, adolescence offers unique opportunities for risk reduction that could (with modifications) be realized in the juvenile justice system in cooperation with other social institutions.
Keywords: adolescent development, juvenile justice, callous-unemotional, life-course persistent, serious offender
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