Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act
The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) provides a framework for states’ juvenile justice services and includes funding for prevention based activities. Reauthorization of JJDPA has been pending in Congress for close to two years.
Now is the time to call on Congress to pass JJDPA. It is the central federal law that promotes effective juvenile justice prevention activities. Core components of a strong JJDPA reauthorization must include:
- Keep children and youth out of the juvenile justice system: Address the needs of children at-risk of contact with the juvenile justice system and their families early and effectively.
- Ensure equity and competence: Consider the impact of race, ethnicity, culture, language, gender and sexual orientation in legal representation and throughout the system in both policy and practice.
- Ensure responses appropriate to a young person’s age and stage of development: Treat children and youth in the justice system in an age-appropriate manner. Provide developmentally appropriate, evidenced-based programs and services. Ensure, when necessary, sanctions are appropriate to a youth’s age and offense.
- Strengthen the federal partnership with state and local governments: Strengthen the federal role in supporting state and local governments by providing sufficient resources to jurisdictions to effectively implement the JJDPA, to fully comply with its core requirements/protections and to ensure state and local adherence to high standards of performance.
Additional resources for juvenile justice research and policy updates are available at:
- Act 4 Juvenile Justice – http://www.act4jj.org/
- Campaign for Youth Justice – http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/
- Center for Children’s Law and Policy – http://www.cclp.org/
- Coalition for Juvenile Justice – http://www.juvjustice.org/
- National Juvenile Defender Center – http://www.njdc.info/
- National Juvenile Justice Network – http://www.njjn.org/
- W. Haywood Burns Institute for Juvenile Justice Fairness and Equity – http://www.burnsinstitute.org/
