Sources

A number of organizations have recently studied juvenile crime, the increase in juvenile violence and homicide, and the populations of youth involved in the juvenile justice system, both in California and in the United States. We cite many of their findings and recommendations in this report.

Online edition note: We are adding hyperlinks to organizations and reports outside of our site that served as sources for the study.

The Little Hoover Commission has recently produced two reports. The first, The Juvenile Crime Challenge: Making Prevention a Priority, came out in 1994 and makes a number of recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature. A copy of this publication was sent to each local Leagues in November, 1995. The second, Boot Camps: An Evolving Alternative to Traditional Prisons, was published in 1995.

The Children's Advocacy Institute (CAI),, has published the California Children's Budget each year since 1994. It pulls out the major accounts relevant to children from the state budget, and separates out the sources of revenue between local, state, and federal sources. The 1995-96 and 1996-97 reports included a chapter on Juvenile Justice. Copies of the 1995-96 Budget were sold at the 1996 Presidents Council and copies of the chapter on Juvenile Justice were distributed to all local League Presidents who attended the Council.

The RAND Institute, based in Santa Monica, which helps to improve public policy through research and analysis, recently published a report, Diverting Children from a Life of Crime: Measuring Costs and Benefits, by authors Peter W. Greenwood, Karyn E. Model, C. Peter Rydell and James Chiesa.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has sponsored a number of research projects on the effective prevention of juvenile crime. Several recent reports: Balanced and Restorative Justice; Guaranteeing Safe Passage: Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent and Chronic Juvenile Offenders; and Prevention and Parity: Girls in Juvenile Justice (with Girls Incorporated of Indianapolis).
[Online note: many of these reports, and others, are available from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service under the topic Juvenile Justice. Read the report in text format, if possible. Otherwise, you may download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, if you don't already have it, install the software, and read the report in that format. Warning: most of these PDF format reports are huge (sometimes 200K)] as is the Acrobat Reader software.

The California Wellness Foundation of Woodland Hills, California, is an independent, private foundation, funded in 1992 by a substantial endowment from Health Net, a California health maintenance organization. The Foundation will allocate $30 million over five years in their Violence Prevention Initiative to develop and evaluate a comprehensive, multi-faceted approach to reducing youth violence throughout the state. In moving the issue to the public health agenda, the Foundation intends to stimulate and support innovative programs patterned after public health strategies and methods that have succeeded in reducing death from disease and unintentional injury. As part of this Initiative, the Foundation sponsored a series of lectures in 1995-96. One of these was given by Pedro Noguera, Assist. Professor of Education, U.C. Berkeley, titled Reducing and Preventing Youth Violence: An Analysis of Causes and an Assessment of Successful Programs.

The California Task Force to Review Juvenile Crime and the Juvenile Justice Response met for one year and is now finalizing its findings and recommendations to the Governor and Legislature. More than 80 experts testified before the Task Force and a number of references are made here to that testimony.

The California Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) published Juvenile Crime: Outlook for California, in May of 1995.

The Status Offender Task Force was convened by the California Youth Authority in 1992 and met through 1993. Although the final report was never published, the Final Draft makes some findings and recommendations that are referred to here.

In 1995, the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA) formed the Juvenile Justice Reform Ad Hoc Committee, composed of experienced juvenile prosecutors. For one year, the committee held meetings throughout the state, and received and reviewed proposals and input from many juvenile prosecutors. Their recommendations were published in Reforming the Juvenile Justice System: The Prosecutor's Perspective on Juvenile Justice Reform.

The National Council on Crime & Delinquency published Images and Reality: Juvenile Crime, Youth Violence and Public Policy in 1994 and The Hidden Crisis: Women in Prison, The Women Offender Sentencing Study and Alternative Sentencing recommendations Project in 1996.

The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing recognized the need to deal with violence in 1992 and appointed an advisory panel on school violence. The report, published in 1994, Creating Caring Relationships to Foster Academic Excellence includes recommendations for teachers, administrators, school boards, teacher training institutes, parents, students and others.

The Learning Disabilities Association of California (LDA-CA) published a special edition of their newsletter, The Gram, in September of 1995, on Learning Disabilities and Juvenile Justice.

The State Bar of California commissioned a study by the Carleton Research Company to determine how 10-14 year olds think the law affects themselves.

There have been other studies and articles written on the subject. Although those listed above are the main ones used in this report, reference to some of the others can be found in the Endnotes.

Other Helpful Resources

The California Child, Youth and Family Coalition (CCYFC) advocates for sound public policies affecting youth and directly reaches out to young people in crisis and their families via its 24-hour, toll-free California Youth Crisis Line (800-843-5200) Information of community-based youth programs is also available to the public via the Youth Crisis Line. Also write or call CCYFC, 2424 Castro Way, Sacramento, CA 95818-3224 (916-739-6912).

Women Against Gun Violence educates families and communities about the dangers of guns, and organizes women to work towards making guns less available. Write c/o Youth ALIVE! 3012 Summit, Third Floor, Summit Medical Center, Oakland, CA 94609 or call 510-444-6191. In Los Angeles, call 310-204-2348.

Juvenile Justice in California: Facts & Issues.