Effective programs for promoting juvenile accountability share the following important elements:

• Recognizing where each youth is developmentally and building on each youth’s individual strengths.

• Combining restorative restitution and community service with victim input and various approaches to bringing young offenders face-to-face with their victims.

• Teaching juvenile offenders how to make positive choices and resolve disputes without aggression, helping them understand how their actions have affected their victims, and discouraging them from viewing other people as potential targets.

• Using flexible, graduated sanctions and recognizing that punishment does not make a young person accountable.

• Empowering families to support youth’s positive activities and efforts to succeed in school.

• Connecting youth with prosocial peers.

• Conducting program activities in the communities in which participating youth live (and, for youth returning to the community after confinement, designing supports prior to release).

The JAIBG Best Practices Series of Bulletins provides States and localities with a wealth of information about juvenile accountability, in theory and in practice. By following up on the ideas and suggestions in this series, policymakers, planners, and practitioners can help change the way youth think about their behavior, ensure that youth take responsibility for their actions, and ensure that victims and communities feel safe and restored.