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Thoughts on Improving Juvenile Court Dispositions

NCJ Number
167160
Journal
Juvenile Justice Update Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: (June-July 1997) Pages: 3-4,8
Author(s)
H T Rubin
Date Published
1997
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Juvenile court dispositional hearings are discussed with respect to their structures, patterns, and factors that influence judicial decisionmaking.
Abstract
Probation staff frequently control the disposition hearing, but prosecution and defense counsel negotiations and arguments may dominate. A hearing may take 2 minutes or 30 minutes. Common juvenile code provisions authorize probation, restitution and community service, drug treatment, residential care, State commitment, and other dispositions. Contemporary judicial codes have added many potential judicial orders to the dispositions. These may include fines and court costs, orders against parents to refrain from conduct that the court determined has caused or tended to cause the youth's offenses, revocation or suspension of a driving license, and community service by the parents. Some statutes allow a disposition to a local secure pretrial detention center. Some recent statutes allow lengthy incarceration. Many State laws now prescribe case processing timelines. National data reveal that probation is used in 56 percent of juvenile cases; community service, counseling, drug treatment, or other requirements in another 12 percent; out-of-home placement in 28 percent of cases; and dismissal or other release in the other 4 percent. All juvenile courts need an array of community-based services that range from low to high intensity and that include residential programs when needed. States should ensure that the juvenile courts have the needed options.