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Taking the ABA (American Bar Association) Juvenile Justice Standards to the 21st Century: Juvenile Justice Reform for the '90s

NCJ Number
150751
Date Published
1994
Length
164 pages
Annotation
After reviewing the history of the development and implementation of the American Bar Association's Juvenile Justice Standards from the project's inception in 1971, this manual presents the standards as part of an effort to review and revive the standards to guide the juvenile justice system in the 1990's.
Abstract
The concepts underlying the standards are a due-process or justice model, rather than a medical or treatment model; durable principles that can withstand transitory crises or media sensationalism; and a nationwide scope with flexibility to adapt to local needs. The standards reflect a tightly drawn model for a comprehensive juvenile justice system, including guidelines that address its structure, organization, rules of conduct and performance, definitions of roles and relationships, procedures, specified grounds for and limitations on official intervention, requirements for services, and charts that show the nexus between misconduct and sanctions. The standards describe an expansive system based on a family court with jurisdiction over the varieties of judicial intervention that impact children. Standards also address every stage of official discretion, from the police decision to arrest or release a suspected offender to the choices available to intake and probation officers, judges, prosecutors, and corrections administrators. There are even standards for the architecture of juvenile facilities. One of the principles underlying juvenile dispositions under the standards is the use of the least restrictive alternative while imposing sanctions proportionate to offense seriousness.