This Bulletin is part of OJJDP’s Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants (JAIBG) Best Practices Series. The basic premise underlying the JAIBG program, initially funded in fiscal year 1998, is that young people who violate the law need to be held accountable for their offenses if society is to improve the quality of life in the Nation's communities. Holding a juvenile offender “accountable” in the juvenile justice system means that once the juvenile is determined to have committed law-violating behavior, by admission or adjudication, he or she is held responsible for the act through consequences or sanctions, imposed pursuant to law, that are proportionate to the offense. Consequences or sanctions that are applied swiftly, surely, and consistently and are graduated to provide appropriate and effective responses to varying levels of offense seriousness and offender chronicity work best in preventing, controlling, and reducing further law violations.

Designed to help States and units of local government develop programs in the 12 purpose areas established for JAIBG funding, Bulletins in this series present the most up-to-date knowledge to juvenile justice policymakers, researchers, and practitioners about programs and approaches that hold juvenile offenders accountable for their behavior—“best practices,” as determined by research and experience. An indepth description of the JAIBG program and a list of the 12 program purpose areas appear in this overview Bulletin for the series.