Enhancing Prosecutors' Ability To Combat and Prevent Juvenile Crime in Their Jurisdictions

Abstract

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. To combat and prevent juvenile crime, prosecutors require information that offers a range of responses. This Bulletin and its JAIBG companion, Enabling Prosecutors To Address Drug, Gang, and Youth Violence, provide some of that crucial information.

Los Angeles County Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act: Fiscal Year 2012–2013 Report

“…Similarly to what happens in the Save Kids program, the DA notifi es the parents of the truant youth and follows up with a formal criminal fi ling if the parent fails to take appropriate corrective action. Th e OJJDP bulletin on the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants program (Gramckow and Tompkins, 1999) cites the ACT program and presents it as one model of an approach and program that holds juvenile off enders accountable for their behavior. In a more recent evaluation of truancy interventions, Dembo and Gulledge (2009) note that important components of a successful approach should include programs based in schools, the community, the courts, and law enforcement.…”

Los Angeles County Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act: Fiscal Year 2013–2014 Report

“…Similarly to what happens in the Save Kids program, the DA notifies the parents of the truant youth and follows up with a formal criminal filing if the parent fails to take appropriate corrective action. The OJJDP bulletin on the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants program (Gramckow and Tompkins, 1999) cites the ACT program and presents it as one model of an approach and program that holds juvenile offenders accountable for their behavior. In a more recent evaluation of truancy interventions, Dembo and Gulledge (2009) noted that important components of a successful approach should include programs based in schools, the community, the courts, and law enforcement.…”

Los Angeles County Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act: Fiscal Year 2011–2012 Report

“…Similarly to what happens in the Save Kids program, the DA notifies the parents of the truant youth and follows up with a formal criminal filing if the parent fails to take appropriate corrective action. The OJJDP bulletin on the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants program (Gramckow and Tompkins, 1999) cites the ACT program and presents it as one model of an approach and program that holds juvenile offenders accountable for their behavior.…”