research methods for juvenile delinquency

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Risk and protective factors and interventions for reducing juvenile delinquency: a systematic review.

1. Introduction

2. materials and methods, 2.1. inclusion criteria, 2.2. exclusion criteria, 2.3. data sources and search strategy, 2.4. risk of bias assessment, 4. discussion, 5. limitations, 6. conclusions, author contributions, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Aazami, A.; Valek, R.; Ponce, A.N.; Zare, H. Risk and Protective Factors and Interventions for Reducing Juvenile Delinquency: A Systematic Review. Soc. Sci. 2023 , 12 , 474. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12090474

Aazami A, Valek R, Ponce AN, Zare H. Risk and Protective Factors and Interventions for Reducing Juvenile Delinquency: A Systematic Review. Social Sciences . 2023; 12(9):474. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12090474

Aazami, Aida, Rebecca Valek, Andrea N. Ponce, and Hossein Zare. 2023. "Risk and Protective Factors and Interventions for Reducing Juvenile Delinquency: A Systematic Review" Social Sciences 12, no. 9: 474. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12090474

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Juvenile Delinquency

Theory, Research, and the Juvenile Justice Process

• © 2020
• Latest edition
• Peter C. Kratcoski 0 ,
• Lucille Dunn Kratcoski 1 ,
• Peter Christopher Kratcoski 2

Sociology/Justice Studies, Kent State University, Tallmadge, USA

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Tallmadge, USA

Williams, Welser & Kratcoski LLC, Kent, USA

• Provides an overview of major topics related to Juvenile Delinquency for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level students
• Includes quantitative and qualitative research findings, with new interviews and discussions of the experiences of child care professionals and juvenile justice practitioners
• Provides an interpretation of theory to practice in the criminal justice system
• Explores recent discussion of children as victims, such as non-fault children who are victims of abuse, neglect, and at-risk situations such as violence and bullying
• Incorporates international perspectives on juvenile justice and delinquency, in addition to addressing changes in the characteristics of delinquents, changes in laws, and the influence of social media and electronic communications devices on juvenile delinquency

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How Young Offenders’ Perceive Their Life Courses and the Juvenile Justice System: A Systematic Review of Recent Qualitative Research

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• juvenile delinquency
• juvenile justice
• at-risk children
• at-risk youth
• status offenders
• juvenile court
• family court
• juvenile corrections
• developmental and life-course criminology
• age-crime curve

Table of contents (16 chapters)

Front matter, the transition of child to adult.

• Peter C. Kratcoski, Lucille Dunn Kratcoski, Peter Christopher Kratcoski

Past and Current Bio-Social Perspectives on Delinquency Causation

Social-psychological theories of delinquency, social organization perspectives on delinquency causation, perspectives on interpersonal relationships in the family, perspectives on gangs and peer group influences pertaining to delinquency causation, perspectives on delinquency and violence in the schools, laws and court cases pertaining to children: offenders and victims, perspectives on children as victims of abuse and neglect, the police role in delinquency prevention and control, processing the juvenile offender: diversion, informal handling, and special dockets, the juvenile court process, probation and community-based programs, perspectives on juveniles incarcerated in secure facilities, parole and community supervision, counseling and treatment of juvenile offenders, back matter, authors and affiliations.

Peter C. Kratcoski

Lucille Dunn Kratcoski

Williams, Welser & Kratcoski LLC, Kent, USA

Peter Christopher Kratcoski

About the authors

Peter Charles Kratcoski earned a PhD in sociology from the Pennsylvania State university, a MA in sociology from the University of Notre Dame and a BA in sociology from King’s College. He taught at St. Thomas College and Pennsylvania State University before assuming the position of assistant professor of sociology at Kent State University. He retired as professor  of  sociology/criminal justice studies and Chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice Studies at Kent State University. He is currently a professor emeritus and adjunct professor at Kent State. He has published many books, book chapters and journal articles in juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, juvenile victimization and crime prevention as well as completing numerous research  projects   relating to policing, crime prevention, juvenile delinquency prevention and victimization. His most recent publications include author of Correctional Counseling and Treatment (6 th edition) 2017, co-editor of Corruption, Fraud, Organized Crime, and the Shadow Economy, 2016 and co-editor of Perspectives on Elderly Crime and Victimization, 2018.

Lucille Dunn Kratcoski was awarded a  Bachelor of Arts degree  from Marywood College and a Master degree in music from Pennsylvania State University. She has numerous years teaching experience at the elementary, high school and university levels as well as providing private instruction. She co-authored Juvenile Delinquency and a number of book chapters and journal articles on the subject of juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice. In addition to her private practice, she serves as a  Kratcoski Research Associate.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Juvenile Delinquency

Book Subtitle : Theory, Research, and the Juvenile Justice Process

Authors : Peter C. Kratcoski, Lucille Dunn Kratcoski, Peter Christopher Kratcoski

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31452-1

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Law and Criminology , Law and Criminology (R0)

Copyright Information : Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-030-31451-4 Published: 16 December 2019

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-31454-5 Published: 06 January 2021

eBook ISBN : 978-3-030-31452-1 Published: 03 December 2019

Edition Number : 6

Number of Pages : XXVI, 442

Number of Illustrations : 6 b/w illustrations

Additional Information : Originally published by Pearson Education, Inc., Old Tappan, New Jersey, 2003

Topics : Youth Offending and Juvenile Justice , Criminological Theory

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Juvenile Delinquency: Prevention, assessment, and intervention

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Juvenile offending and anti-social behaviour are enormous societal concerns. This broad-reaching volume summarizes the current evidence on prevention, diversion, causes, and rates of delinquency, as well as assessment of risk and intervention needs. A distinguished cast of contributors from law, psychology, and psychiatry describe what we know about interventions in school, community, and residential contexts, focusing particularly on interventions that are risk reducing and cost effective. Equally important, each chapter comments on what is not well supported through research, distinguishing aspects of current practice that are likely to be effective from those that are not and mapping new directions for research, policy, and practice. Finally, the volume provides a description of a model curriculum for training legal and mental health professionals on conducting relevant assessments of adolescents for the courts.

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Juvenile’s Delinquent Behavior, Risk Factors, and Quantitative Assessment Approach

A systematic review.

Gupta, Madhu Kumari; Mohapatra, Subrajeet; Mahanta, Prakash Kumar 1

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

1 Department of Clinical Psychology, Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Science, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

Address for correspondence: Dr. Madhu Kumari Gupta, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, Ranchi, 835215, Jharkhand, India. E-mail: [email protected]

Received July 22, 2021

Accepted December 24, 2021

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background: 

Not only in India but also worldwide, criminal activity has dramatically increasing day by day among youth, and it must be addressed properly to maintain a healthy society. This review is focused on risk factors and quantitative approach to determine delinquent behaviors of juveniles.

Materials and Methods: 

A total of 15 research articles were identified through Google search as per inclusion and exclusion criteria, which were based on machine learning (ML) and statistical models to assess the delinquent behavior and risk factors of juveniles.

Results: 

The result found ML is a new route for detecting delinquent behavioral patterns. However, statistical methods have used commonly as the quantitative approach for assessing delinquent behaviors and risk factors among juveniles.

Conclusions: 

In the current scenario, ML is a new approach of computer-assisted techniques have potentiality to predict values of behavioral, psychological/mental, and associated risk factors for early diagnosis in teenagers in short of times, to prevent unwanted, maladaptive behaviors, and to provide appropriate intervention and build a safe peaceful society.

INTRODUCTION

Juvenile delinquency is a habit of committing criminal offenses by an adolescent or young person who has not attained 18 years of age and can be held liable for his/her criminal acts. Clinically, it is described as persistent manners of antisocial behavior or conduct by a child/adolescent repeatedly denies following social rules and commits violent aggressive acts against the law and socially unacceptable. The word delinquency is derived from the Latin word “delinquere” which described as “de” means “away” and “linquere” as “to leaveor to abandon.” Minors who are involved in any kind of offense such as violence, gambling, sexual offenses, rape, bullying, stealing, burglary, murder, and other kinds of anti-social behaviors are known as juvenile delinquents. Santrock (2002) defined “an adolescent who breaks the law or engages in any criminal behavior which is considered as illegal is called juvenile delinquent.”[ 1 ] In India, Juvenile Justice (J. J.-Care and protection of Children) Act of 2000 stated that “an individual whether a boy/girl, who is under 18 years of age and has committed an offense, referred or convicted by the juvenile court have considered a juvenile delinquent.”

PREVALENCE RATE: JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN INDIA

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (India, 2019), statistical data of crimes in India show that overall, 38,685 juveniles were placed under arrest in 32,235 cases, among 35,214 juveniles were taken into custody under cases of IPC and 3471 juveniles were arrested under cases of special and local laws (SLL) during 2019. About 75.2% of the total convicted juveniles (29,084 out of 38,685) were apprehended under both IPC and SLL belonging to the age group 16–18 years. In 2019, 32,235 juvenile cases involving and recorded, indicating a slight increment of 2.0% over 2018 (31,591 cases). The rate of crime also indicates a slight increase from 7.1 (2018) to 7.2 (2019).[ 2 ] The total registered cases against juvenile delinquents are calculated as crime incidence rate per one Lakh population as shown in Figure 1 .

RISK-FACTORS AFFECTING DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR

Studies identify that multiple risk factors are responsible for delinquent behavior categorized as individual, parental, family, community, society, schools/educational, financial, mental as well as psychological factors of the individual and the family shown in Table 1 . Adolescents involve themselves in various anti-social activities to fulfill their basic needs. Basically, “delinquency” is just a recreational activity for earning money. These risk factors differ from person to person during the early childhood period and very crucial because children, who are involved in any kind of deviant activity at an early stage, have a higher chance to adopt delinquent tendencies chronically.[ 33 ]

Juvenile delinquency is caused by a wide range of factors, such as conflicts in the family, lack of proper family control, residential environmental effects, and movie influence, along with other factors are responsible for delinquent behavior.[ 3 ] Family and environmental factors, namely restrictive behaviors, improper supervision, negligence, criminal activities of parents, improper motivation by peers, fear of peer rejection, poverty, illiteracy, poor educational performance at school, lack of moral education may turn the individual personality into delinquents. Moreover, in the environment, deteriorated neighborhood, direct exposure to violence/fighting (or exposure to violence through media), violence-based movies are considered major risk factors.[ 4 ] In India, a higher level of permissive parenting in low-income families had so many family members and due to economic conditions, the adolescents had pressure to search various income sources to sustain the family, and it has affected parental behavior toward adolescents.[ 5 ] The children who belong to the lower middle-socio-economical class and are rejected by society showed more aggressive behavior.[ 6 ]

Juvenile gang members exhibit significantly higher rates of mental health issues such as conduct disorders, attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorders, antisocial personality disorder, posttraumatic-stress-disorders, and anxiety disorders.[ 7 ] As well as the intellectual level of young offenders is significantly different from nonoffenders. Emotional problems on adolescents are related to delinquent behavior and impulsivity directly associated with antisocial behavior among adolescents.[ 8 ] Poor self-control of adolescents involved them in substance use, affected harmfully, and increased involvements in anti-social activities.[ 9 ] Nonviolent people, who not involved in any gang, are less likely to utilize mental-health services, having lower levels of psychiatric morbidity, namely antisocial personality disorders, psychosis, and anxiety disorders, when compared with the group of violent offenders.[ 10 ]

MACHINE LEARNING: A NEW QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION APPROACH

Machine learning (ML) is belonging to the multidisciplinary field that includes programming, math, and statistics, and as a new and dynamic field that necessitates more study. It is a branch of computer science that emerged through pattern recognition and computational learning theory of artificial intelligence. ML is exploring researches and development of algorithms that can learn and genera tea prediction besides a given set of data through the computer. It is a scope for the study that gives computers the capability to learn without being principally programmed.[ 11 ] Tom M. Mitchell explained ML as “a computer-based program to learn from action of “E” concerning any task of ‘T’s, and some performance evaluates “P,” if its performance on “T,” as assessed by “P,” improves with action of E.”[ 12 ] The goal of ML is to mimic human learning in computers.[ 13 ] Humans learn from their experiences and ML methods learn from data. The user provides a portion of a dataset designated to train by the algorithm. The algorithm creates a model based on the relationships among variables in the dataset, and the remaining dataset is used to validate the ML model. In simple words, ML approach is for risk indicator is meant to magnify the potential of current knowledge.[ 15 ] ML sits at the common frontier of many academic fields, including statistics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering.[ 14 , 17 ] ML models principally categorized into three categories, namely supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement based on their task which they are attempting to accomplish. Supervised learning is relying on a training set where some characteristics of data are known, typically labels or classes, and target to find out the universal rule that maps inputs to outputs. Unsupervised learning has no design to give to the learning algorithm, balance itself to find out the patterns through inputs. In reinforcement, interaction with a dynamic environment happens during which a particular target such as driving a vehicle is performed without a driver principally involved in any activities, namely comparison. In numerous studies, pattern classification approaches based on ML algorithms are used to forecast human beings into various categories by maximizing the distance among data groups. ML generally refers to all actions that train a computer algorithm to determine a complicated pattern of data that is conceivable used for forecast category of membership into a new theme (e.g., individual vs. controls).[ 32 ]

RATIONAL OF THE STUDY

In the last decade, various researchers have been attracted to the use of quantitative computer-based techniques for analyzing various psychological and clinical aspects, which have greatly contributed to the area of modern psychology. In this analysis, most of the works are devoted to the use of various quantitative analysis techniques, namely ML and statistical methods which has utilized by the researchers for evaluating various risk and protective factors of juveniles. Henceforth, studies on the application of the ML model for risk-assessment of delinquent behavior on juveniles are limited as compared to other techniques, namely logistic regression. Hence, this review paper may explore the utilization of ML to get an easy and quick assessment on juveniles and helpful for future studies. It may help to determine the most significant risk factors and establishment of a successful treatment program that prevents juveniles from delinquent activities and stops them from recidivism.

In this review, all these studies carried out which has used various quantitative techniques to detected juvenile delinquency with specially emphasis on ML and statistical approaches. The review is organized into four sections follows as: Section-I gives an overview of juvenile delinquency, prevalence rates in India, and various behavioral risk factors during the developmental period. It also provides general information about ML as a new approach and their application. Section-II included information about the methodology of the present review. Section-III explores the results and discusses which explore the ML and statistical methods for detecting juvenile behaviors and Section-IV concludes the extant research of the present review and the implications for future work.

METHODOLOGY

This review paper aim is to find the various quantitative techniques (computer-assisted techniques) ML and statistical approaches which have been used for assessing/predicting delinquent behaviors, traits, and risk factors among juveniles.

Sources of information

For this review article, a total of 15 research articles were identified and selected through Google-scholar, Web of Science, Academia, PubMed, and Research-Gate, using the keywords, namely juvenile-delinquency, ML, Risk-factors, and delinquent-behavior. All relevant studies were selected for review of the quantitative approaches for identifying delinquent behavior and risk factors of adolescents and the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram for articles search process as shown in Figure 2 .[ 34 ]

Inclusion criteria

Research studies published since 2011–2019, case studies, empirical, quantitative, qualitative, and cross-sectional studies published in English were included, which used ML and statistical models to analyze behaviors, risk and associated factors among juveniles.

Exclusion criteria

Protocol, dissertations, prototype studies, and studies which published in other languages were excluded.

Studies on machine learning and statistical methods among juvenile delinquency

In this review, we performed a rigorous search of the literature to provide a narrative description of the various quantitative computer-based approaches which are applicable to assess and identify the delinquent behaviors and risk factors on juveniles. Initially, the search identified 150 articles through various databases, search outcomes show in the PRISMA flow diagram [ Figure 2 ]. One hundred and thirty-five articles were removed by screening through the title, text, removal of duplicate articles and based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, we identified 15 research articles in full text and these selected articles comprising through expert opinions. The findings of these articles tabulated the diverse approaches on the current state of knowledge about assessment of early diagnosis of delinquent behaviors and risk factors and tried to provide a summary which based on computer-based quantitative analysis [ Table 2 ].

In this systematic review, we performed a rigorous search of the literature to provide a narrative picture of various methods used to identify juveniles’ behaviors. We identified 15 articles, with the objective to analyze the application of ML and other quantitative approaches to assess various delinquent behaviors and risk factors of juveniles. The studies revealed ML is a new quantitative method to identify the risk factors and delinquent behavior henceforth; there very few studies are conducted. In this study, we tried to provide a summary of selected articles on the current state of knowledge about quantitative analysis for assessment of delinquent behaviors of juveniles and there only few articles have used ML as quantitative analysis. The City Social Welfare Development Office of Butuan, Philippines, used a dataset to create predictive models for analyzing the minors at risk and children in conflict with poor financial status. And found children with age range 12–17 years are victims of maltreatment, and adolescents between the ages of 15–17 years commit severe crimes.[ 16 ] Kim et al .[ 18 ] used traditional regression, ML method and certified the predictive validity of the models in numerous ways, along with traditional hold-out validation k-fold cross-validation, and bootstrapping to examine the present practice and policy for assessment, treatment, and management of delinquents who have a history of sexual conviction in multiple jurisdictions from New York, Florida, Oregon, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Results revealed that important risk factors among juveniles had some criminal history, sexual offending experiences, and delinquent peers. Some dynamic factors viz. performance in school, peer connection, sorrowful feelings, impulsiveness, mental health, and substance abuse are important anticipating factors among sexual offenders for recidivism.

Rokven et al .[ 19 ] used multinomial logistic regression technique to compare four types of delinquent groups: online delinquents, offline delinquents, nondelinquents, and delinquents who belong to both online and offline categories and found juveniles who having both online and offline criminal records are more likely to commit crimes. Delinquency is indirectly linked with sleep deprivation, with poor self-control acting as a catalyst proved by regression models with latent factors.[ 20 ] Violent video games directly associated with anti-social behavior, even though several correlates, such as psychopathologies has present in youth analyzed by negative binomial regression (extended version of Poisson regression).[ 22 ]

Fernández et al . analyzed through multivariate logistic regression and found, school dropouts’ teenagers had a higher level of irresponsibility, substance, and illicit drug abuse compare then nondropouts.[ 23 ] In addition, lack of parental supervision plays a significant role in the prediction of deviant behaviors on school dropouts. School dropout teenagers have multi-dimensional problem that requires proper parental supervision and proactive school policies to reducing drug and alcohol abuse.[ 23 ] Fifty-two percent of juvenile offenders had issues with academic performance, 34% had family history of psychiatric disorders, 60% of juveniles involved in property crime and 54% of offenders involved in drugs and alcohol use-related offenses had some deficiency in academic achievement evaluated by multiple regression techniques.[ 24 ] Wu (2015) created a multidimensional scaling model and found students used a complex cognitive-mechanism measured and compared their position to friends and others.[ 25 ]

Sexually assaulted history has strongly associated and one of the most powerful variables associated with the intensity of psychoactive substances using by juveniles.[ 26 ] Parks[ 28 ] has used binary logistic regression and multivariate models revealed that no major variations in violent juveniles belong to cohabiting families and other families. However, teenagers of cohabiting families have marginally higher risk to involving in nonviolent forms of crime.[ 28 ] Economic conditions of the family has strongly linked to the influences of parents, siblings, and peers at risk and delinquency. Economic stress, having an active sibling aggression, harmful, and more destructive events affected seriously on adolescent delinquent behaviors who belongs to economically poor families.[ 29 ] Coercive parents are directly associated with violent delinquency of adolescents on both ways as explicitly and indirectly and transformed shame on adolescents. As opposed to articulated guilt, shame conversion is the major cause for more violence.[ 30 ]

It is very difficult to evaluate all possible outcomes and explain a single quantitative approach as ML to early identification of delinquent behaviors and risk-factors of juveniles for intervene in the affected factors. Our study has several limitations. First, other studies rather than the English language were we not included in the study. Second, counties like India have very less evidence-based studies in the field of early detection of juveniles and computer-based assessment approaches as ML for quantitative analysis. Third, only 15 articles were considered which fulfilled the inclusion criteria.

IMPLICATION

The modern world is fully based on computers and technology for making works easy and faster. ML model is an emerging future technology in the field of health and mental health. It has the potential to predictive ability to detect health/mental health-related problems as well as for early diagnosis of problems behaviors. This review is acknowledging the use of quantitative analysis focused on ML algorithm as a new research area for early identification of delinquent behaviors of children, to prevent the deviant behaviors and related risk-factors and may be beneficial for future studies and contribute to make a peaceful society and worthful young generation for the nation.

This review showed that available literature based on ML and other quantitative methods to identify the risk factors and delinquent behaviors of juveniles. Young peoples are at a higher risk to learn maladaptive/deviant behaviors as violent, aggressive, hyperactive, and easily involved in criminal activities. According to studies, individual factors, family environment, family structure, size/type of the family, parental status (single/separate/divorces) are highly affected adolescent’s behaviors. In addition, social, environmental, and economic conditions are lead to adapt conductive and delinquent behaviors. There highly need to identify delinquent behaviors in the initial stage to prevent with affected risk factors. It is very crucial for early screening and intervention.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgment

Authors acknowledge to Department of Science and Technology- Cognitive Science Research Initiative (DST-CSRI) for sponsored the project in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, India, which explores the technology-based approach in multidisciplinary works. The authors also would like to thank Mr. Abhinash Jenasamanta and Mr. Devesh Upadhyay, Research Scholars, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, BIT, Mesra, Ranchi, for technical and motivational support.

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Delinquent behavior; juvenile-delinquency; machine learning; risk-factors

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Chapter 3: Measuring delinquency

• Useful Websites

Chapter 3 focuses on measuring delinquency, presenting both research methods and sources of data for studying delinquent behavior. The most common method used in the study of delinquency is survey research. This chapter briefly describes the process of survey research, and presents the National Youth Survey and the Community Survey of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods as examples of this methodology. Other research methods presented in Chapter 3 include ethnography, ecological analysis, and the comparison of offenders and non-offenders, a method used by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck in the mid-1900s. To foster an understanding of these research methods, we discuss both strengths and weaknesses of these different approaches. Three primary data sources are also presented in this chapter: “official data” provided through the Uniform Crime Reporting program and through Juvenile Court Statistics, victimization surveys such as the National Crime Victimization Survey, and self-report surveys of offending. Again, we discuss both strengths and weaknesses of these data sources, and consider why they sometimes present differing pictures of the amount and types of delinquency in the United States.

• survey research
• ethnography
• ecological analysis
• Uniform Crime Reporting program
• cross-sectional survey
• longitudinal survey
• reliability
• Comparing offenders and non-offenders
• The National Youth Survey
• The Community Survey of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods
• Ethnography
• Contemporary ecological analysis
• Redesign of the UCR program
• Strengths of UCR data
• Weaknesses of UCR data
• Juvenile Court Statistics
• Strengths of victimization surveys
• Weaknesses of victimization surveys
• Strengths of self-report data
• Weaknesses of self-report data
• Comparing UCR and NCVS data
• Comparing self-report data to UCR and NCVS data
• Summary and conclusions
• National Youth Survey , Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado: www.colorado.edu/ibs/NYSFS/
• Uniform Crime Reporting Program , Federal Bureau of Investigation: www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr
• Juvenile Court Statistics , National Center for Juvenile Justice: www.ncjj.org/Publication/Juvenile-Court-Statistics-2011.aspx
• National Crime Victimization Survey , Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics: www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245

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The prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency: A review of the research

1993, Clinical Psychology Review

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Andrea Müller-Fabian

Sa'odah Ahmad

This paper presents an overview of the juvenile delinquency concept, trends in the delinquency problem, factors that have been linked to delinquency, governmental efforts to reduce and/or prevent the problem. Some suggestions are made to improve prevention and rehabilitation efforts to curb juvenile delinquency.

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The American juvenile justice system has undergone many changes since its inception. U.S. juvenile courts initially followed the correctional model. With the increasing rate of recidivism and also the increase in the commission of violent crimes by children, especially in the 9s and 8s of the twentieth century, the juvenile justice system moved away from the model of correction and education. It tended to the "constructive justice model" after the model Correctional Education and the Punitive Justice Model. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the juvenile justice system in the United States has shifted to the restorative justice model.

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Advancing the Collection of Juvenile Justice Data

The National Institute of Justice works closely with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to support a wide range of national data collection, analysis, and dissemination programs that inform the nation’s understanding of juvenile crime, victimization, and the juvenile justice system. These efforts serve as an invaluable resource for policymakers and juvenile justice professionals who work tirelessly to prevent juvenile delinquency, protect children, and improve the juvenile justice system.

In particular, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, requires OJJDP to submit to Congress and the president an annual report on juveniles in custody. [1] In response, OJJDP has sponsored statistical collections — now managed by NIJ — to gather information from residential placement facilities that hold juveniles who are charged with, or adjudicated for, law violations. Two of these collections — the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) and the Juvenile Residential Facility Census (JRFC) — provide the most comprehensive information available on national- and state-level trends and characteristics of juveniles in residential placement.

The data from these collections have served the juvenile justice field well over the years and have led to important insights regarding the nature of and changes in facility populations, environments, and practices. However, challenges remain in maintaining and improving the quality, completeness, and utility of these data. To help advance data collection in the field, NIJ is currently working with OJJDP and other partners to review and redesign the CJRP and JRFC. This effort will help to generate the most useful, timely, and reliable statistics available to describe juveniles in residential placement and the conditions in, operations of, and services provided by the facilities in which they are held.

Children in Custody Census

In 1971, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Law Enforcement Assistance Administration sponsored the first Juvenile Detention and Correctional Facility Census. The census replaced an annual survey on youth adjudicated delinquent that was conducted by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and published in a report series titled Statistics on Public Institutions for Delinquent Children . OJJDP took over sponsorship of the census in 1977, after the office was established under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974.

Over time, the scope of the census expanded. In 1986, it became known as the Census of Public and Private Juvenile Detention, Correctional, and Shelter Facilities. Through 1995, it was typically conducted biennially, and findings were published in a report series titled Children in Custody . The reports provided information about the public and private facilities that held juveniles in custody and about the number and characteristics of the juveniles they held. The census included both one-day count items on the resident populations and annual items on admissions, discharges, and average length of stay.

The primary weakness of the census was that it collected only aggregate-level population data. This limited its utility for examining the intersection of juveniles’ demographic characteristics and legal attributes.

Early Data Improvements

In the early 1990s, OJJDP began a broad, long-term examination and redesign of its data collections on juveniles in custody. The office consulted extensively with content and methods experts, held discussions with respondents, and tested questions and methodologies. The result was the development of two new data collection programs — the CJRP and JRFC — to gather comprehensive and detailed information about juveniles in residential placement and the facilities that hold them.

The CJRP and JRFC are administered in alternating years and collect information from all residential placement facilities that house juveniles, defined as people younger than age 21 who are held in a residential setting for a delinquency or status offense. [2] This includes juveniles who are temporarily detained by the court and those who are committed after adjudication as part of a court-ordered disposition. The collections do not gather information on youth in federal facilities, adult prisons or jails, facilities used exclusively for mental health or substance abuse treatment, or facilities for abused or neglected children. The collections are currently managed by NIJ, in close collaboration with OJJDP and its data collection agent, the U.S. Census Bureau.

The CJRP provides a detailed picture of juveniles in residential placement, including the demographics and legal attributes of each youth in a juvenile facility on the census date. First administered in 1997, the CJRP typically takes place on the fourth Wednesday in October in odd-numbered years. It asks all juvenile residential facilities in the United States to describe each person younger than age 21 assigned a bed in the facility on the census date as a result of a delinquency or status offense. Facilities report individual-level information on each juvenile’s date of birth, gender, race, placement authority, most serious offense charged, court adjudication status, and admission date, as well as some information on facility-level characteristics.

The JRFC provides a detailed picture of the facilities that hold juveniles and the services these facilities provide. First administered in 2000, the JRFC is conducted on the fourth Wednesday in October in even-numbered years. The JRFC includes questions on facility ownership and operation, facility type, security, capacity and crowding, unauthorized departures, injuries, and deaths in custody. The JRFC also collects supplementary information each survey year on juvenile facility practices around identifying youth’s needs and the specific services that facilities provide, such as those related to mental health, physical health, substance use, and education needs.

Infographic - Juvenile Justice Data Collection Through the Years

Animation shows progression of juvenile justice data collection through the years.

Download a printable version of the infographic .

Current Trends and Characteristics

To understand current characteristics of juveniles in residential placement and juvenile facilities, researchers supported through the NIJ-managed National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Program analyzed data from the most recent CJRP and JRFC. [3]

See “Juvenile Court Statistics”

Juveniles in Residential Placement, 2019

On October 23, 2019, residential placement facilities held 36,479 juveniles, which was 65% below the 1997 level when 105,055 youth were held in placement. [4] In fact, by 2019 the total number of juveniles in placement reached its lowest level since at least 1975. [5] Between 1997 and 2019, declines were greater for committed youth (down 72%) than for detained youth (down 49%). In 2019, there were 114 juveniles in placement for every 100,000 juveniles in the U.S. population. [6] There was substantial variation in juvenile residential placement rates by state; however, rates declined in every state from 2007 to 2019, and many states cut their rates by half ( see exhibit 1 ).

Nationally, 43% of juvenile held were held for person offenses, followed by property offenses (22%), technical violations and public order offenses (14% each), and drug offenses (4%). Youth held for status offenses made up 4% of the placement population.

More than half (52%) of juveniles in residential placement were age 16 or 17. Youth ages 13 through 15 made up 32% of those in placement. Females accounted for 15% and males 85% of juveniles in residential placement. Forty-seven percent of the U.S. juvenile population were minorities, but minority youth accounted for 67% of juveniles in residential placement. Non-Hispanic Black youth made up the largest proportion (41%), followed by non-Hispanic white (33%) and Hispanic (21%) youth. Non-Hispanic youth of other races, including those of two or more races, accounted for 6% of youth in residential placement.

The median days in placement since admission was 113 days for committed juveniles and 26 days for detained juveniles. [7] Thirty-three percent of committed juveniles and about 8% of detained juveniles remained in placement six months after admission.

Juvenile Residential Facilities, 2018

In 2018, 40% of all facilities were private, but they held only 27% of juveniles in placement ( see exhibit 2 ). [8] Sixty percent were public facilities and held the majority of juveniles, with local facilities (38%) holding more youth than state facilities (35%). Facilities most commonly identified themselves as detention centers (41%), residential treatment centers (37%), or group homes (16%). [9] Other reported facility types included long-term secure facilities, shelters, reception/diagnostic centers, and ranch/wilderness camps.

Security features and practices varied across types of facilities. For example, 49% of facilities reported that they locked youth in their sleeping rooms; however, the percentage was much higher for local (81%) and state (69%) facilities than for private facilities (8%). Similarly, 29% of facilities reported using external fences or walls with razor wire, but this was most common among facilities that identified as reception/diagnostic centers (60%), training schools (55%), and detention centers (50%). About one-quarter of facilities (27%) reported using mechanical restraints in the previous month, and 22% reported locking youth alone in some type of seclusion for four or more hours to regain control of their unruly behavior.

Facility crowding affected a relatively small proportion of youth in custody. Eighteen percent of facilities reported that the number of residents they held on the 2018 census date put them at or over the capacity of their standard beds or that they relied on some makeshift beds. In 2018, 1% of facilities reported being over capacity, down from 8% of facilities in 2000.

Most facilities reported screening youth for suicide risk and treatment needs. All youth were evaluated for suicide risk in 95% of facilities, for education needs in 88% of facilities, for substance abuse problems in 75% of facilities, and for mental health needs in 63% of facilities. The majority of facilities reported screening all or some youth for service needs within one week of admission. More than half of facilities (62%) reported providing onsite treatment services. Of facilities providing treatment, the largest proportion provided mental health services (86%), followed by substance abuse services (70%), services for those having committed sex offenses services (36%), service for those committing violent offenses (21%), and services for those committing arson (10%).

Juvenile facilities reported only eight deaths of youth younger than age 21 in residential placement for the 12 months prior to the 2018 census. Suicide was the most commonly reported cause of death (six deaths). The death rate was 2.1 per 10,000 youth in placement. Deaths of juveniles in residential placement remained relatively rare and well below the levels recorded in prior decades.

Ongoing Data Collection Challenges

There is an ongoing struggle across establishment censuses to ensure data quality while maintaining high response rates and reducing respondent burden. The CJRP and JRFC, which routinely achieve response rates near 90%, [10] are no exception. One way to meet these challenges is to clearly demonstrate the practical utility and unique contribution of the data to respondents, as well as more broadly to inform policy, practice, and the general public.

Notably, the items included in the CJRP and JRFC survey instruments have largely remained the same since their original design more than 20 years ago. Although this continuity is important to support trends for core estimates, the data show that there have been dramatic changes in juvenile corrections during this period. The juvenile residential placement population has been reduced by more than half. Security and safety in facilities remain paramount, but juvenile corrections practice is increasingly focused on appropriately screening youth and delivering rehabilitative services that are shown by research to reduce reoffending and promote prosocial youth outcomes. Youth are now more commonly held in facilities that are smaller, less crowded, and run by county or municipal governments. In addition, there is greater automation of data, and many facilities have improved their infrastructure for tracking and reporting youth and facility-level information.

Strategy for Future Data Improvements

NIJ and OJJDP have worked closely with the U.S. Census Bureau over the past few years to assess the performance of the data collections and identify potential opportunities for improvement. The assessment process included conducting respondent debriefings following data collection cycles, analyzing methods of response and other respondent behavior, and examining nonresponse patterns. This work provided an initial foundation for understanding respondent preferences and priorities for key data items, how respondents interacted with the web survey instruments, how nonresponse varied by key facility attributes such as location and size, and the potential for nonresponse bias in the population estimates produced from the collections.

To advance these efforts, NIJ is managing a study of how to redesign OJJDP’s data collections on juveniles in corrections. [11] The study, led by RTI International, will result in improved data collection instruments and methodologies for generating statistics on the number and characteristics of juveniles in residential placement and information about the facilities in which they are held. In collaboration with NIJ, OJJDP, and other federal partners, the project team is conducting a comprehensive assessment of the current data collections and will develop and pilot test the redesigned CJRP and JRFC instruments and data collection methodologies. The project team has also engaged an expert panel of juvenile corrections leaders, researchers, and other juvenile justice practitioners to ensure that the project recommendations fully address information gaps and needs in the field.

This project will help improve the nation’s primary effort to gather statistical data on juveniles in residential placement and make that information accessible to researchers, practitioners on the front lines, and policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels. NIJ remains committed to ensuring the dissemination of and access to clear, comprehensive, and reliable data to meet the pressing needs of the juvenile justice field.

For More Information

• To learn more about juvenile crime, victimization, and youth involved in the juvenile justice system, visit OJJDP’s online Statistical Briefing Book.
• Access information from the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement.
• Access national and state data from the Juvenile Residential Facility Census.
• Original data from the two collections are archived at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.

About This Article

This article was published as part of NIJ Journal issue number 283.

This article discusses the following awards:

• “National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Program,” award number 2019-JX-FX-K001
• “FY 18 Redesign Study of OJJDP’s Juveniles in Corrections Data Collections,” award number 2018-JX-FX-K001
• “National Juvenile Court Data Archive,” award number 2018-JX-FX-0002

Sidebar: Juvenile Court Statistics

National statistics on how cases referred to juvenile court are processed, including detention and disposition decisions, are also available. In 1929, the Children’s Bureau within the U.S. Department of Labor first published the Juvenile Court Statistics report. The report presented delinquency and dependency case information for calendar year 1927 based on data reported by 42 courts in 15 states. [12] In the 1950s, the Children’s Bureau and its work were transferred to the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. In 1974, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act established the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), which then assumed responsibility for the collection and reporting of juvenile court statistics.

Today, the National Juvenile Court Data Archive, [13] sponsored by OJJDP and managed by the National Institute of Justice, collects detailed, case-level data and court-level aggregate statistics to generate national estimates of delinquency and petitioned status offense caseloads. The archive is supported through a grant to the National Center for Juvenile Justice, the research division of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The most recent report includes data from more than 2,500 courts with jurisdiction over 87% of the juvenile population in 2018. [14]

The Juvenile Court Statistics report provides information on the use of detention between court referral and case disposition and on the most severe initial disposition in each case, which includes commitment to a residential facility. [15] The number of delinquency cases involving detention decreased 52% between 2005 and 2018. However, the proportion of cases detained was slightly larger in 2018 (26%) than in 2005 (25%). Similarly, the number of cases adjudicated delinquent that resulted in out-of-home placement decreased 59% from 2005 to its lowest level in 2018. Courts ordered out-of-home placement in 28% of all cases adjudicated delinquent in 2018, a proportion that was relatively stable between 2005 and 2018.

Return to text.

[note 1] Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Reauthorization 2018 , Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2019.

[note 2] Delinquency offenses are acts committed by juveniles that could result in criminal prosecution if committed by adults. Status offenses, such as running away, truancy, and incorrigibility, are behaviors that are law violations only because the people committing them are juveniles.

[note 3] “ National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Program ” at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, NIJ award number 2019-JX-FX-K001.

[note 4] Unless otherwise noted, all data in this section come from Sarah Hockenberry, Juveniles in Residential Placement, 2019, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, in press.

[note 5] Bradford Smith, “ Children in Custody: 20-Year Trends in Juvenile Detention, Correctional, and Shelter Facilities ,” Crime & Delinquency 44 no. 4 (1998): 526-543.

[note 6] The placement rate is the count of juveniles in juvenile residential facilities on the census date per 100,000 youth age 10 through the upper age of original juvenile court jurisdiction in each state.

[note 7] The CJRP captures information on the number of days since admission for each juvenile in residential placement. These data represent the number of days the juvenile had been in the facility up to the census date.

[note 8] Unless otherwise noted, all data in this section come from Sarah Hockenberry and Anthony Sladky, Juvenile Residential Facility Census 2018: Selected Findings , Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2020.

[note 9] The JRFC asks respondents to identify the type of facility. Although respondents were allowed to select more than one facility type category, the vast majority (81%) selected only one category.

[note 10] U.S. Census Bureau, Documentation of the Imputation Methodology for the 2018 Juvenile Residential Facility Census, 2020, internal report, unpublished.

[note 11] “ FY 18 Redesign Study of OJJDP’s Juveniles in Corrections Data Collections ” at Research Triangle Institute, NIJ award number 2018-JX-FX-K001.

[note 12] Children’s Bureau, Juvenile-Court Statistics, 1927 , Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1929.

[note 13] “ National Juvenile Court Data Archive ” at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, NIJ award number 2018-JX-FX-0002.

[note 14] Sarah Hockenberry and Charles Puzzanchera, Juvenile Court Statistics 2018 , Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2020.

[note 15] All data in this paragraph are from Hockenberry and Puzzanchera, Juvenile Court Statistics 2018.

About the author

Benjamin Adams  is a senior advisor in NIJ’s Office of the Director.

Cite this Article

Read more about:.

Data under the "Juveniles in Residential Placement" heading has been updated using numbers from the 2019 survey.  

Data in Exhibit 1: Decline in Youth in Residential Placement has been updated.

Related Publications

• NIJ Journal Issue No. 283

Related Awards

• National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Program
• FY 18 Redesign Study of OJJDP's Juveniles in Corrections Data Collections
• National Juvenile Court Data Archive

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In Perspective: An Overview of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act

This In Perspective fact sheet provides an overview of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). This fact sheet explains how the act works, the impact of the act and why the act is needed. 

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This article has been retracted.

Psychological characteristics and health behavior for juvenile delinquency groups, fangbin song.

1 School of Design Art&Media, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210094, China

2 School of Law, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 211189, China

3 School of Electronic Engineering, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, 222005, China

Shenyu Zhang

4 College of Liberal Art, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210000, China

Associated Data

The data used to support the findings of this study are included within the article.

The related literature is studied to explore the psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency groups and implement their psychological characteristics model for the intervention of health behavior. Drawing on the results of current literature research, the Youth Psychological Characteristics Crime Prevention Questionnaire (YPPQ) was compiled, which can be simply referred to as the Crime Prevention Questionnaire. The whole psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency are analyzed by means of a questionnaire. Firstly, the YPPQ scores of different groups were compared, and a structured interview was conducted on the reasons for the crime of the problem youth group. Secondly, data analysis was carried out on the results of questionnaires and interviews, and the psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency were summarized. A “mixed hierarchical intervention model” was proposed to intervene in the mental health behavior of juvenile delinquency groups, and corresponding intervention strategies were also proposed. The results reveal that through the questionnaire survey, the educational background of juvenile subjects was generally distributed in middle school, the number of juveniles with primary school education was less than 30% of the juvenile delinquency groups, the middle school education accounted for more than 60% of the juvenile delinquency groups, and the approximate age was about 18 years old. The largest number in each group were adolescents with secondary school education, indicating the importance of psychological education on crime prevention for adolescents in secondary school. By comparing the YPPQ test scores of different groups, the adolescent group has higher test scores than the juvenile delinquency groups in five of the dimensions. Through the comparative analysis of the YPPQ test results of the juvenile delinquency groups, the problem youth group, and the normal youth group, it is found that the YPPQ has high reliability and validity, so its detection and evaluation are highly feasible. By comparing the odds ratio (OR) of each question in the YPPQ test between the experimental group and the control group, it is found that the psychological characteristics of the experimental group are significantly affected by family, school, and even society. Finally, it proposes a “mixed hierarchical intervention model” for juvenile delinquency to intervene in health behaviors. The purpose is to provide some research ideas for the study of the psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency groups and to put forward some suggestions for the prevention of juvenile delinquency and the intervention of health behavior.

1. Introduction

With the rapid expansion of China's economy and culture, the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency has gradually increased, and the education problems of juveniles have gradually been exposed, which has brought certain unsafe factors to the society, and even caused serious harm [ 1 ]. To prevent juvenile delinquency, the motives and psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency must be understood. Therefore, the construction of the psychological characteristic model of juvenile delinquent groups is extremely important; in addition, it is particularly necessary to intervene in the mental health of the juvenile delinquent groups [ 2 ]. Juvenile delinquency is a behavior that deviates from social norms and moral norms and violates the law, which has aroused the concern of the whole society. Many studies show that the causes of different individuals who commit crimes are different [ 3 ]. Psychological characteristics are the most vital individual difference variables and the area that researchers pay the most attention to. Therefore, the predictive evaluation of the psychological characteristics of juvenile citizens' criminal tendency and the screening of people with psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency is directly related to the stability of China's social order [ 4 ].

The research on the psychological characteristics of traditional juvenile delinquency groups has been difficult to meet the requirements of juvenile health cultivation. Some scholars have done some research on psychological quality testing. Guided by theories of mental health and the quality of Chinese adolescents' mental health, an online mental health assessment has an established system for primary and secondary schools, providing schools, teachers, and parents with a platform to better observe students' mental health. Relatively stable environmental factors influencing adolescent internalization problems are screened. Taking environmental factors as independent variables, the adjustment mechanism of adolescents' psychological traits affecting adolescents' internalization problems is explored, and ultimately, adolescents' psychological traits and the indicators of internalization problems are obtained [ 5 ]. Rodriguez-Ayllon et al. explored the relieving effects of different exercise intervention programs on adolescents' psychological stress and the characteristics of changes over time. Many students were used as subjects, and three kinds of intervention programs lasting 16 weeks were used to test the relieving effect on adolescents' psychological stress [ 6 ]. Lee et al. used a two-factor model to revise and test college students' psychological quality measurement tools [ 7 ]. The research literature found that there are few studies on the detection of adolescents' psychological quality, and the content urgently needs to be improved and supplemented. In the face of the group characteristics of juvenile delinquency, it is undeniable that the current law not only strengthens the protection of juveniles but also strengthens the governance of juvenile delinquency. For example, Amendment to the Criminal Law (11) lowers the age of criminals [ 8 ]. Wang et al. analyzed the motivation of juvenile delinquency from the perspective of juvenile delinquency psychology and theoretical basic knowledge and proposed some preventive measures for juvenile delinquency psychology [ 9 ]. Baglivio et al. studied the importance and value of juvenile delinquency correction and conducted a theoretical analysis of the psychological characteristics and core incentives of juvenile delinquency [ 10 ]. The governance of juvenile delinquency from a legal perspective will undoubtedly help strengthen external governance, but the deep-seated problem is the “internal problems” reflected in juvenile delinquency, such as the types of juvenile delinquency and the psychological characteristics of the criminal groups formed by the types. It still needs to be further explored [ 11 ]. From the point of juvenile delinquency psychology, crime prevention research can not only form a warning effect of prevention but also can timely intervene in the healthy behavior of juveniles through the construction of a criminal psychological characteristic model, to construct crime prevention at the level of juvenile's healthy behavior.

After the literature is fully analyzed and reviewed, the psychological characteristics of the juvenile delinquency groups are studied. First, the questionnaire of YPPQ is compiled according to the standard of questionnaire preparation and referring to the research results of existing literature. Then, comparing the YPPQ scores of different groups and the odds ratios (OR) values of different groups in different dimensions, the correlation between the dimensions of the scale and the interview form is analyzed, and the results of the OR values of the scales in different groups are discussed. The data is analyzed in detail through mathematical statistics, the types and characteristics of juvenile delinquency are clarified, and different criminal psychological characteristics are further excavated and classified, to construct a criminal psychological characteristic model. At last, the health behaviors of the juvenile delinquency groups are intervened in order to effectively prevent juvenile delinquency.

2. Research on Psychological Characteristics of Juvenile Delinquency Groups

2.1. research objects.

The research objects of this study are divided into the experimental group and the control group. The research objects of the experimental group are juvenile offenders from a local juvenile detention center. In addition, the research objects of the experimental group also include adolescents with psychological problems in school psychological tests. The control group are the adolescents of the normal youth group. The number of research objects is 300. The education they receive is from primary school to junior college, and their age is around 18 years old. After the advantages of the experimental group and the control group are analyzed, the juvenile offenders are divided into the recidivism group and the nonrecidivism group.

2.2. Research Methods

The research test is carried out by a combination of the literature research method and questionnaire survey method. The questionnaire survey adopts the procedure of questionnaire preparation, draws on the existing research results, and compiles the YPPQ. The scale has 30 questions, and strict reliability and validity tests are carried out. The test results show that the questionnaire meets the psychometric standards [ 12 ].

The scale is used to test the psychology of the juvenile delinquency groups, in the form of written tests [ 13 ]. The scale covers rebellious society, family problems, school behavior, social cognition, legal concepts, impulsive tendencies, anger, and explicit hostility [ 14 ]. The subscales are symbolized by ANT, FAM, SCH, SOC, DQ, VIO, ANG, and HOS [ 15 ]. In addition, structured interviews are conducted to gain a more specific understanding of the psychological state of the problem youth group. The content of the interview involves 8 dimensions, including the growth environment, the family situation, impulse, antisocial, bad records, informed person evaluation, suicide, and self-evaluation [ 16 ]. Each test item is specifically operated by psychological professionals. Before the test, unified guidance is given to explain the test purpose, meaning, and requirements to the subjects. Finally, the interview results of the problem youth group are input into the computer for coding. The contents of YPPQ are exhibited in Table 1 .

The contents of YPPQ.

2.3. Statistical Survey

In this study, a total of 300 test questionnaires are distributed and 295 are recovered, with an effective recovery rate of 98.33%. Five invalid questionnaires are excluded, and 290 valid questionnaires are finally obtained, with an effective rate of 96.67%. The scores of the valid questionnaire are statistically analyzed, and SPSS25.0 software is used for detailed analysis. In addition, the scores of the interview and the questionnaire of the problem youth group also need descriptive statistical analysis. In this study, the reliability and validity of the YPPQ are tested by using Cronbach's α coefficient to test the reliability of the questionnaire [ 17 ], and it is used to test the consistency of all items or the total scale of each factor in the scale. Cronbach's α coefficient of the questionnaire is 0.93, and the reliability of the questionnaire is very high. For the validity of the scale [ 18 ], Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's test are used. The KMO value is between 0.9 and 1 [ 19 ], indicating that there is a strong correlation between variables, and the variables are suitable for factor analysis. The Bartlett test is significant ( p < 0.05), and the questionnaire is highly valid. The way to test the moderating effect using SPSS software is as follows: first, the observed values of the independent and moderator variables are normalized, and the product term is constructed. The purpose of this is to reduce the multicollinearity problem among the variables in the regression equation. Then, the control variable, independent variable, moderating variable, and product term are put into the multivariate hierarchical regression model and the dependent variable in turn to test the moderating effect.

3. Research Results on Psychological Characteristics of Juvenile Delinquency Groups

3.1. comparison of yppq scores of different groups.

The general statistical results of different groups of adolescents are shown in Figure 1 .

General statistics of different groups of adolescents ((a) education and (b) age).

The subjects of this study are divided into three groups: the juvenile delinquency group, the problem youth group, and the normal youth group. Figure 1(a) shows descriptive statistics on the educational background of the three groups of subjects. Among the juvenile delinquency group, secondary school education accounted for more than 60%, followed by primary school education. The majority of the delinquency among the problem youth group are also middle school students, followed by high school students. High school students have the highest crime rate among the normal youth group, followed by middle school students. Figure 1(b) demonstrates the ages of the three groups of research subjects, the ages are relatively similar, and the approximate age is about 18 years old. Although the age of adolescents is the closest to that of adults, their psychological states are not mature. And there are some differences between their psychological age and physiological age, which leads to insufficient understanding of themselves and easy deviant behaviors of these adolescents.

The scores of the YPPQ test of different groups and the results of the structural interview of problem youths are shown in Figure 2 .

Scores of the YPPQ test of different groups of adolescents and the interview on problem youths ((a) YPPQ test and (b) structural interview results of problem youths).

Figure 2(a) denotes the crime test scores of the three groups of research subjects in different dimension subscale items, and Figure 2(b) refers to the cause statistics of the three groups of psychological disorders for the problem youth group, including roughly eight aspects. Specifically, it covers impulsive personality problems, family environment problems, antisocial personality problems, living conditions problems, bad records problems, self-evaluation, insider evaluation, and suicide. The results of the YPPQ test signify that the juvenile delinquency group and the problem youth group have similar scores in each dimension of the scale, and the problem youth group has higher test scores in five of the dimensions than the juvenile delinquency group. And the scores of the two groups are significantly higher than that of the normal youth group, illustrating that the probability of crime is high. The normal youth group has the lowest scores in each dimension of the scale, with the lowest score of SCH and the highest score of HOS. The lower the score, the lower the probability of committing a crime. To explore the root causes of psychological disorders in the problem youth group, structured interviews are conducted in this study. The interview results show that the proportion of adolescents who have impulsive personality is close to 80%, that the proportion of adolescents who have antisocial personality problems is more than 60%, that the proportion of adolescents who have family environment problems is close to 70%, that the proportion of adolescents who have living situation problems is close to 35%, and that the proportion of adolescents who have bad records is more than 20%. The interview results are compared with the test results, and the comparison shows that this psychological test has a good effect on improving the psychological states of adolescents.

3.2. OR (Odds Ratio) Values of Different Groups in Different Dimensions

The OR values of different groups of adolescents and the normal youths in SCH and FAM scales are shown in Figure 3 .

OR values of different groups of adolescents compared with normal youths in SCH and FAM scales ((a) OR values in SCH scale and (b) OR values in FAM scale).

The juvenile delinquency group is divided into the recidivist group and the nonrecidivist group to make a more detailed analysis of the differences among the juvenile delinquency group, the problem youth group, and the normal youth group. These two groups and the problem youth group form the experimental group. The experimental group is compared with the normal youth group. The test results of the SCH and FAM scales show that the OR values of the experimental groups and the normal youth group on each question in the SCH scale are all greater than 1, which can explain the seriousness of the problems in the experimental group.

Similarly, the OR values of the FAM scale of the recidivist adolescents group, nonrecidivist adolescents group, problem youth group, and normal youth group show that the OR values on many questions are greater than 1. It cannot be ignored that the OR values of the recidivist group on question 9 are less than 1, while the OR values of the nonrecidivist group on questions 1, 5, and 9 are less than 1.

The OR values of different groups and normal group in the VIO and ANT scales are shown in Figure 4 .

OR values of different groups of adolescents in VIO and ANT scales compared with normal youths ((a) OR values in VIO scale and (b) OR values in ANT scale).

Figure 4(a) shows the OR values of different groups of adolescents compared with normal youths in the VIO scale. It shows that most OR values of the recidivist group, nonrecidivist group, problem youth group, and normal youth group are greater than 1 in the VIO scale. However, it is not difficult to see that the OR value of the recidivism group on question 8 is less than 1. Figure 4(b) shows the OR values of different groups of adolescents in the ANT scale compared with normal youths. The OR values of the recidivism adolescents group, the nonrecidivism adolescent group, the problem youth group, and the normal youth group in the VIO scale are greater than 1. Similarly, the OR value of the recidivism group on question 6 is less than 1, and the OR value of the nonrecidivism group on questions 3 and 5 are less than 1.

The OR values of different groups of adolescents and normal youth in DQ and ANG scales are shown in Figure 5 .

OR values of different groups of adolescents in DQ and ANG scales compared with normal youths ((a) OR value in the DQ scale) and (b) OR value in the ANG scale).

Figure 5(a) shows the OR values of different groups of adolescents in the DQ scale compared with normal youths. It can be observed that most OR values of the recidivism adolescents group, the nonrecidivism adolescents group, the problem youth group, and the normal youth group in the VIO scale are greater than 1. However, it can be found that the OR values of the recidivism group on question 3 are less than 1. Figure 5(b) shows the OR values of different groups of adolescents compared with normal youths in the ANG scale. It can be observed that the OR values of the recidivism group, the nonrecidivism group, the problem youth group, and the normal youth group in the VIO scale are all greater than 1. Unfortunately, the OR values on all the questions in the scale are less than 1.

The OR values of different groups of adolescents and the normal youth group in the HOS and SOC scales are shown in Figure 6 .

OR values of different groups of adolescents compared with normal youths in the HOS and SOC scales ((a) OR values in the HOS scale and (b) OR values in the SOC scale).

Figure 6(a) shows the OR values of different groups of adolescents compared with the normal youths in the HOS scale. It can be observed that the OR values of the recidivist adolescents group, the nonrecidivist adolescents group, the problem youth group, and the normal youth group in the VIO scale are greater than 1. There is no question whose OR value is less than 1 in the HOS and SOC scales. Figure 6(b) shows the OR values of different groups of adolescents compared with normal youths in the SOC scale. It can be observed that most OR values of the recidivism adolescents group, the nonrecidivism adolescents group, the problem youth group, and the normal youth group in the VIO scale are greater than 1, and the OR values of the recidivism adolescents group and the non-recidivism adolescents group are less than 1.

3.3. Correlation between the Scale and the Interview

The results of the correlation analysis of each dimension of the scale and the interview are shown in Figure 7 .

Results of correlation analysis of the scale and the interview.

In Figure 7 , SOC stands for Social Cognitive Scale, HOS refers to Overt Hostility Scale, ANG means Anger Out of Control Scale, DQ shows Legal Concept Scale, ANT indicates Antisocial Scale, VIO denotes Impulsive Tendency Scale, FAM illustrates Family Problems Scale, and SCH demonstrates School Behavior Scale. It can be seen from the correlation analysis results of each dimension of the different dimension scale and each dimension of the interview table. The correlation analysis results of each dimension of the different dimension scales and each dimension of the interview form show that the SCH scale has a significant correlation with the two questions of “bad records” and “family atmosphere” in the interview. The FAM scale is significantly correlated with the two questions of “bad records” and “impulse control” in the interview. The VIO scale, the SOC scale, and the ANT scale have no significant correlation with each dimension of the interview. The DQ scale is significantly correlated with the two questions of “impulse control” and “bad records” in the interview. The ANG scale is significantly correlated with the three questions of “family atmosphere,” “antisociety,” and “bad records” in the interview. The HOS scale is significantly correlated with the question of “impulse control” in the interview.

3.4. Discussion on the Results of OR Values of Different Groups in the Scales

The OR value is a commonly used indicator of epidemiology, which reflects the risk of a certain exposure factor for disease [ 20 ]. In this study, it is used to reflect the risk of test questions and measurement content for juvenile delinquency. If the OR values of most test questions in this scale are greater than 1, illustrating the content of the scale has a high correlation, and these test questions can better predict the tendency of juvenile delinquency [ 21 ]. However, there are also some test questions whose OR values are less than 1, indicating the ability of these test questions to predict juvenile delinquency needs to be further improved [ 22 ]. The test questions with fewer advantages are shown in four situations.

First, the ORs of recidivists and problem adolescents are relatively large, while those of nonrecidivists are relatively small. This may be because these test questions have the characteristics of violence or bad behavior habits. A nonrepetitive offender is usually crime of passion. They may not have long-term violent habits. Therefore, the recognition rate of these items is low or there is no significant difference from the normal group. Second, the OR values of the recidivism youth group are smaller. The reason may be that the traits measured by these questions reflect the lighter criminal tendencies. For recidivists, the recognition rate is closer to the normal group. Third, the OR values of the recidivism experimental group are high, and the recognition rate of the problem youth group is low. It could be that these tests reflect a high level of criminal tendencies, which is not suitable for young people with psychological problems. However, these problems are very necessary in psychological tests, which can effectively monitor teenagers with serious criminal tendencies. Fourth, the OR values of the three groups of crime tendency are low, which may be because the content is not suitable, and it needs to be adjusted. In general, in addition to external factors, juvenile delinquency also has some major internal factors, such as lack of self-control, the formation of a bad ego, and the influence of media and social structure, which may constitute juvenile delinquency. Therefore, society, schools, and families must play a full role in preventing crimes.

3.5. Analysis of the Psychological Characteristics of Juvenile Delinquency Groups

3.5.1. analysis of the basic characteristics of juvenile delinquency.

Juvenile delinquency has universal physical and psychological characteristics [ 23 ]. It will be explained from the two aspects of crime subject and crime method. The details are displayed in Figure 8 .

Basic characteristics of juvenile delinquency.

In Figure 8 , from the perspective of criminal subjects, the age of crime is getting younger and younger, and the educational level is generally low. Another large proportion of juvenile delinquency appears in those who enter society prematurely. They are driven by social material desires at the school-appropriate stage, and they skip classes and drop out of school without completing their education. At the same time, adolescents are affected by various factors of information diversification, resulting in psychological and physical precocious puberty. From the perspective of the repetition of the criminal cycle, the same person has two or more criminal experiences, and the most obvious feature is a continuous crime. From the perspective of crime methods, juvenile delinquency is violent and brutal, and it is mostly manifested as intentional homicide, intentional injury, robbery, explosion, and crowd fights. The main reason is that psychology is not yet mature, and then, the irrational violent crime is carried out. More than half of the crimes belong to joint crimes, which are induced by external situations, with simple motives and prominent motives of greed.

3.5.2. Analysis of Psychological Characteristic Model of Juvenile Delinquency

After sorting out, it is divided into the following psychological characteristics models of delinquency.:

• Rebellious psychology of juvenile delinquency groups: in the growth stage, adolescents often have certain rebellious psychology [ 24 ]. Due to the “processing” of various factors such as family, school, and society, their psychology has become distorted, and eventually, they will go on the road of breaking the law and committing crimes. There are major problems in family education, and parents' long-term criticism and accusations make them form bad characters [ 25 ]. In terms of school education, teachers treat them differently according to their grades, which leads to deviations in the education method. It makes students feel pessimistic and misanthropic and develops bad characteristics such as arrogance, self-will, and impulsiveness. As for the students themselves, they are prone to give up on themselves, become depressed, and are easily influenced by the criminal subculture and embark on the road of illegality [ 26 ]
• Weak awareness of the rule of law among juveniles: through the investigation of the social environment of juvenile delinquency, it is found that such people will do anything to resolve conflicts and lack the concept of the rule of law [ 27 ]. It is mainly affected by its growing environment, resulting in a weak legal concept. In the process of educating young people, only moral education is emphasized and the importance of legal education is ignored [ 28 ]
• Teenagers' imitation and curiosity: juvenile delinquency groups are still at the undefined stage in their life. The juvenile delinquent group is in the unsettled stage in all aspects, easily influenced by bad culture, driven by curiosity, tendency, and imitation, which increases the probability of imitating criminal incidents [ 29 ]. In the context of the development of the Internet, teenagers' online morality has not been fully paid attention to by the family, society, and schools, resulting in the lack of online morality. The impact of Internet subculture has adverse effects on adolescents [ 30 ]. Therefore, creating a clean and green Internet environment for teenagers should become one of the directions of the healthy development of the Internet in the future
• Teenagers' comparing psychology: because family and school education have not strengthened the guidance of students' comparison psychology, this kind of psychology has arisen among young people. Driven by it, teenagers will use illegal and criminal means to obtain the things they want [ 31 ]

By sorting out the psychological formation mechanism of the juvenile delinquent group, it is found that the psychological characteristic model is mainly composed of family and school. Families are responsible for educating teenagers. Schools are an important place for them to learn knowledge, as well as moral and legal education. Schools should focus on moral education and enhance the weight of legal education.

4. Intervention on Psychological Health Behavior of Juvenile Delinquency Groups

Through the above types of juvenile delinquency and the psychological characteristics, it can be found that the ultimate cause of juvenile delinquency is the behavior of adolescents, and the intervention mechanism for their behavior can help to construct a “mixed hierarchical intervention model.” Since juvenile delinquency is the result of the combined action of multiple factors, it is not realistic to unilaterally intervene in the development of the health behavior of adolescents. Therefore, the intervention of adolescent health behavior should be intervened through family, school, and society [ 32 ]. The mixed hierarchical intervention model is expressed in Figure 9 .

The mixed hierarchical intervention model.

Firstly, at the family level, parents should communicate with adolescents with a high level of empathy. Since parents and adolescents are in different age groups, there are many differences in their outlook on life, values, and world views. Consequently, to make adolescents have healthy psychology and healthy behavior, parents should act like people who have empathy with teenagers in family education, which enables parents to understand teenagers' behaviors in family education. The education developed from this is an education of communication and cooperation, which enables young people to feel that their parents communicate with them as a kind of friend and form a “virtual peer” identity with their parents. They can communicate with their parents when their hobbies need financial support, conflict with classmates, and have potential psychological comparisons, so as to avoid unhealthy behaviors driven by unhealthy psychology, and eventually embark on the road of crime.

Secondly, special education should be targeted according to the types of schools, such as special education in vocational schools or alternative schools and comprehensive schools. On the one hand, adolescents should have a sense of security in school life and learning, instead of feeling depressed. On the other hand, different types of schools should be targeted at different groups of young students with different educational methods. School education should strengthen moral education and law education, enhancing the legal concept of young students.

Finally, an overall measure conducive to the protection of adolescents should be formed by strengthening the relationship between network governance and community guidance. In terms of network governance, it is necessary to integrate the government network prevention and control office, the network technology platform, and Internet practitioners to strengthen the network ecology, forming the youth network model. In addition, the Internet access of adolescents should be limited, and the network incentives affecting youth crime should be blocked. Community guidance should be strengthened by paying visits and understanding the growth of teenagers so that the mental health of teenagers can be known about and their subhealth behavior can be corrected timely.

In short, the construction of family, school, society, and other multilevel mixed intervention models can predict the psychological health of adolescents and correct their healthy behavior timely. It also promotes and protects the psychological health of adolescents through prevention and treatment and provides the targeted intervention measure of health behavior of adolescents.

5. Conclusion

The objectives are to pay attention to the mental health of juveniles, study the psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency groups, implement their psychological characteristics model on this basis, then propose healthy behavior intervention strategies, and finally effectively help juvenile delinquency groups to improve their mental health problems, so as to achieve the purpose of preventing juvenile delinquency. On the basis of literature analysis, this research firstly compiled the YPPQ, and the structured interview content of the problem youth group was set up. Secondly, the questionnaire results and the interview results were unified for data processing, the correlation was studied, and the psychological characteristics model of juvenile offenders was constructed. Finally, the intervention strategy of healthy behavior was proposed. The survey results manifest that the psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency groups are rebellious and have weak awareness of the rule of law, imitation, curiosity, and comparison. These are all momentous factors that induce juvenile delinquency. The “mixed hierarchical intervention model” is further proposed, which should focus on multilevel, multiangle, and focused interventions on adolescents' health behaviors through families, schools, and society. There are still some deficiencies. Due to the influence of objective factors, the number of research objects is limited, and the generality of the data needs to be strengthened. The development direction of future research is to continue to improve the questionnaire scale, so as to study the psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency more generally and accurately. The advantage of this research lies in that on the basis of predecessors, the YPPQ was compiled to quantitatively analyze the psychological characteristics of juvenile delinquency from different dimensions and further propose the intervention model of healthy behavior.

Data Availability

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Authors' Contributions

Fangbin Song and Ruihua Li are co-first authors.

W.Va. officials announce over $700,000 for juvenile rehabilitation services and research

by MATTHEW SCHAFFER

West Virginia announced Wednesday over $700,000 in grants have been awarded to fund juvenile rehabilitation services and corrections research, state officials said. (WCHS)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — West Virginia announced Wednesday over $700,000 in grants have been awarded to fund juvenile rehabilitation services and corrections research, state officials said.

The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Title II Grants Funds will be awarded to both public and private nonprofit agencies to prevent juvenile delinquency, reduce ethnic and racial disparities, rehabilitate offenders and improving the state’s system, according to a news release from the governor's office.

Nine different agencies and facilities will receive portions of the grants to improve conditions and operations throughout the state totaling $756,419, including those listed below.

• Libera, Inc. will receive $72,778 to expand operations that mentor juvenile girls throughout the state.
• West Virginia Child Abuse Network will receive $90,000 to train professionals who work in child abuse investigation, treatment and research.
• Marshall University Research Corporation will receive $57,200 for community outreach, evidence based delinquency prevention and youth development in Cabell County.

Additionally, $265,051 will be allocated to the Marshall University Research Oversight and Training Grant to provide research oversight and training for the Division of Administrative Services, Justice and Community Services Section and the Office and Research and Strategic Planning.

The University of Chicago The Law School

Criminal and juvenile justice clinic—significant achievements for 2023-24.

The Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinic (CJJC) provides zealous representation to indigent children and adults who are accused or have been convicted of delinquency or crime. The CJJC is a national leader in expanding the concept of legal representation for children and young adults to include their social, psychological, and educational needs. The CJJC also engages in impact work to effect systemic change. In 2023-24, Professor Herschella Conyers directed the CJJC and Professor Erica Zunkel was a CJJC faculty member.

Juvenile Trial and Not Guilty Verdict

In February 2024, Professors Conyers and Zunkel and CJJC students tried a long-running clinic case in Cook County juvenile court. After a four-day trial, the judge concluded that the State had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and found our client not delinquent (the equivalent of not guilty in juvenile court). The charges were very serious, and the not delinquent result has been life-changing for our client and his family. Our client no longer has a felony case hanging over his head, and his juvenile record has been completely expunged.

CJJC students spent the year diligently preparing for trial, organizing and mastering discovery, and conducting investigative tasks. Their contributions were critical and wide-ranging. Students helped draft direct and cross examinations, the opening statement, the closing argument, and pre-trial motions, and they also appeared in court. Prior to trial, CJJC student Jordan Cohen, ’24 , successfully argued against one of the State’s motions in limine. During trial, three CJJC students— Zoe Belford, ’24 , Laura Breckenridge, ’24 , and Caleb Jeffreys, ’24 —conducted direct examinations of key defense witnesses. Caleb shared his thoughts on representing our client at trial here . Maggie Wells, ’24 , and Ajoke Adetula, ’25, were also key members of the trial team and assisted with every aspect of trial preparation.

This trial victory built on the excellent work of previous generations of CJJC students who reviewed discovery, litigated and argued pre-trial motions, retained critical defense experts, conducted investigative work, and completed other important tasks.

Cook County Criminal Cases

The CJJC continued work on several pretrial felony cases at the 26th and California Criminal Courthouse and took on a new case.

In one case, the CJJC negotiated a diversionary disposition under Illinois’s expanded First Time Weapons Offense Program (FTWOP) for a client with no criminal history and a personal background of profound trauma. After nearly a year of our client’s participation in the program, CJJC student Juliana Steward, ’24 , argued that our client’s supervision should be ended early, and the underlying charges dismissed, so that the case would no longer interfere with her employment and career advancement. CJJC students Laura Breckenridge, ‘24 , and Nicholas Smith, ’24 , researched and drafted a persuasive motion to suppress evidence in the 2022-23 school year, which was instrumental in persuading prosecutors to offer participation in the FTWOP.

In another case, the CJJC collaborated with Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation (PBMR), a restorative justice non-profit organization based in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, to represent a nineteen-year-old young man who is actively involved with PBMR. Under the supervision of Professor Zunkel, the CJJC student team, consisting of Matt Maxson, ’24 , Sebastian Torero, ’24 , Ajoke Adetula, ’25 , and Jessica Ritchie, ’25 , reviewed and catalogued discovery; researched, drafted, and argued a motion for release under Illinois’s new Pretrial Fairness Act; researched and drafted a motion to suppress evidence; prepared an impactful mitigation video; and assisted with plea negotiations. Our client ultimately pled guilty pursuant to a favorable plea agreement. Under the supervision of Professor Zunkel, Sebastian Torero, ’24 represented our client at his pretrial release hearing and the plea and sentencing hearing.

Excessive Sentences Project

In 2023, Professor Zunkel launched the Excessive Sentences Project (ESP) to ameliorate unjust and excessive sentences and combat mass incarceration in Illinois and the federal system. This project builds on Professor Zunkel’s groundbreaking sentence reduction work in the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic (FCJC). The ESP’s work took multiple forms: (1) litigating federal post-conviction sentence reduction motions, with a specific focus on clients who are serving lengthy mandatory minimum sentences that would be drastically lower today; and (2) broader advocacy for the increased use of second look mechanisms.

The federal sentence reduction statute permits a judge to reduce an individual’s sentence for “extraordinary and compelling” reasons. On November 1, 2023, the Sentencing Commission’s updated policy statement went into effect, which permits sentence reductions for family circumstances, abuse in prison, medical reasons, when an individual’s sentence is “unusually long,” or any other “extraordinary and compelling” reason. Professor Zunkel and her client, Dwayne White, previously testified in favor of expanding the grounds for a sentence reduction. In 2018, Congress reformed the sentence reduction statute so that people in federal prisons can bring sentence reduction motions to judges, rather than waiting for the Bureau of Prisons to grant relief.

The CJJC litigated numerous sentence reduction motions over the course of the year. Building on eleven prior successful motions for sentence reductions, including eight early releases for individuals convicted in connection with the government’s Illinois stash house reverse sting operations, Professor Zunkel and Nathaniel Berry, ’24 , filed another sentence reduction motion for a stash house client, which was granted in February 2024. As a result, our client was released from prison ten years early from his twenty-five-year mandatory minimum sentence. In addition, Professor Zunkel and Juliana Steward, ‘24 , in collaboration with Professor Alison Siegler and a team of FCJC students, filed a sentence reduction motion for a stash house client who is serving a thirty-five-year sentence and is one of just two people still imprisoned for the Illinois stash house operations. Our motion is currently pending. Professor Zunkel’s successful stash house sentence reduction litigation was featured in a recent episode of the Drugs on the Docket podcast.

Professor Zunkel, Nathaniel Berry, ’24 , Nicholas Smith, ’24 , Maggie Wells, ’24 , Christiana Burnett, ’25 , and Julianne Kelleher, ’25 also filed several sentence reduction motions under the Sentencing Commission’s updated policy statement for clients who received life or defacto life sentences that would be drastically lower today based on “once-in-a generation” legal changes that Congress did not make retroactive. Students spent countless hours scouring our clients’ case records, reaching out to our clients and their families and friends to verify release plans, conducting legal research, and drafting the motions. These motions are currently pending.

In addition to representing clients, Professor Zunkel and CJJC students advocated more broadly for expanding post-conviction second looks. Professor Zunkel and CJJC student Nathaniel Berry, ’24 authored an op-ed in USA Today on the importance of the Sentencing Commission’s new “unusually long sentences” ground for a sentence reduction. The piece highlighted CJJC client Dion Walker, who is serving a mandatory life sentence for drug trafficking that he could not receive today. In September 2023, Professor Zunkel, Nathaniel Berry, ’24 , and Maggie Wells, ’24 presented with FAMM General Counsel Mary Price and Professor Alison Guernsey (Director, University of Iowa Law School Federal Criminal Defense Clinic) at the Second Look Network’s conference about the Sentencing Commission’s updated policy statement and second looks in the federal system. Professor Zunkel also spoke at the Midwest Clinical Conference and FAMM’s Second Chances Convening about the Sentencing Commission’s updated policy statement.

In recognition of her sentence reduction work, Professor Zunkel received the Excellence in Pro Bono Service Award from the United States Northern District of Illinois District Court and the Federal Bar Association.

CJJC Students

Sixteen students participated in the CJJC in the 2023-24 academic year. Of the eleven third-year students in the CJJC, seven argued in court behalf of our clients under Professor Conyers’ and/or Professor Zunkel’s supervision pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 711. Maggie Wells, ’24 won the Mandel Award for outstanding contributions to the clinical program. Over the course of her time in the CJJC, Maggie worked on the CJJC’s juvenile trial case, the Excessive Sentences Project, and one of the CJJC’s pretrial criminal cases. Our CJJC graduating students have bright futures: five students are going on to federal clerkships, two are working in public interest positions, and several are going to law firms.