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Breaking New Ground in Juvenile Justice Settings: Assessing for Competencies in Juvenile Offenders
Author(s) -
MACKIN JULIETTE R.,
WELLER JUDY M.,
TARTE JEROD M.,
NISSEN LAURA BURNEY
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
juvenile and family court journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.155
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1755-6988
pISSN - 0161-7109
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-6988.2005.tb00104.x
Subject(s) - economic justice , juvenile , psychological intervention , juvenile delinquency , public relations , psychology , political science , applied psychology , medical education , criminology , medicine , ecology , psychiatry , law , biology
The field of juvenile justice has made great strides in developing a research base of effective practices and principles, including an understanding of risk factors and needs that contribute to juvenile offending. However, the research base and practice of systematic assessment has not yet fully incorporated youth, family, and community strengths. To address this need, three juvenile justice agencies in the northwestern United States participated in a pilot study to develop and implement an assessment tool (the Youth Competency Assessment) and process that would identify and utilize strengths to help balance the risk and needs focus of their assessment and case planning practices. This article provides descriptions and implementation strategies of the three pilot sites. The article concludes with recommended system changes and policy interventions to support ongoing utilization of this kind of strength‐based tool in juvenile justice settings, and a clear set of recommendations for other communities wishing to implement strength‐based assessment in their own agencies.