CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT – Every day, judges face difficult decisions affecting the estimated 557,000 abused and neglected children in foster care in the United States. The NCJFCJ’s Permanency Planning for Children Department (PPCD) plays an essential role in assisting judges who oversee the safety, permanency, and well-being of children appearing before them. Through policy development, training, technical assistance, and research projects, improved court practice is achieved and the complex issues affecting these children and families are addressed.

• Permanency Issues – The PPCD bases its work on the 1980 Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (P.L. 96-272) and the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (P.L. 105-89), which mandate immediate attention to each abused and neglected child’s need for safety, permanency, and well-being. As part of a national movement to improve court practices, the PPCD published two nationally-acclaimed primers. The RESOURCE GUIDELINES: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse & Neglect Cases details dependency hearing processes, provides options for improved practice and is endorsed by both the American Bar Association and the Conference of Chief Justices. The ADOPTION AND PERMANENCY GUIDELINES: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases serves as a basis for training judges and others on how to safely move children out of foster care into adoption and other permanent placements. Both publications serve as blueprints for change and are disseminated nationwide.

• Model Courts – Established in 1992, the PPCD’s Victims Act Model Courts Project has grown into a national network of 29 “Model Courts” working to improve court processes so fewer children linger in foster care and find permanent homes in a timely manner. Basing their reform efforts on the PPCD’s RESOURCE GUIDELINES, Model Courts identify areas for improvement in the dependency court system while working with court and child welfare professionals to implement court and systems change. The Model Courts serve a variety of communities, ranging from large urban centers like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, to smaller cities such as Toledo, Ohio and Reno, Nevada.

Additional PPCD efforts aimed at improving outcomes for the nation’s abused and neglected children and their families address such issues as best practice; court performance measurement; collaboration; children exposed to violence; permanency; and judicial education and training. The annual Child Abuse and Neglect Institutes (CANI) have been so successful that now two concurrent sessions are held in Reno each year.

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY – Juvenile crime continues to be a serious problem in our nation. The issues are many, including substance abuse, gangs, sexual offending, offenses by children under 10, truancy, bullying, and offenses against persons and property. Mental health issues, learning disabilities, appropriate and effective resources, disproportionate minority confinement, and rural, suburban and inner-city needs are other considerations. Through wide-ranging training and technical assistance, the NCJFCJ gives judges and court professionals the tools they need to fight delinquency.

• The Juvenile Sanctions Program focuses on developing or improving juvenile accountability-based sanctioning programs to increase diversion opportunities and alternatives to secure detention for minor and intermediate level juvenile offenders. Although the demonstration site component of the project officially ended in 2006, the lessons learned from the progress of the 15 “Sanctions” demonstration sites located around the country will be highlighted in the national graduated sanctions training programs scheduled for 2007. A special focus is on youths identified with special needs, i.e., female offenders, those with mental health problems or learning difficulties, and minority youths who are disproportionately represented in the juvenile justice system.

• The Alcohol and Other Drugs Division provides judges and other professionals with the latest information about substance abuse issues; works with communities to address underage drinking and DUI use through effective adjudication; and provides training and technical assistance to jurisdictions planning, implementing, or enhancing juvenile drug courts. Other training topics include adolescent development and treatment, the impact of substance abuse on families, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, the needs of girls in the juvenile justice system, cultural proficiency, and effective use of incentives and sanctions.

• The NCJFCJ’s Reentry Initiative: The Role of the Juvenile Court recently published a book of recommendations on the role of the Juvenile Court in the reentry of juvenile offenders being released from juvenile correctional institutions or other out-of-home placements back into the community.

• Victims’ Issues – The response of the juvenile justice system to the needs of the victims of juvenile crime remains an important issue. NCJFCJ’s development of a curriculum entitled “The Juvenile Court Response to Victims of Juvenile Offenders,” which included research, assessment of best practices and consultation with experts in the field, has been the basis of numerous training programs and has contributed to improved victim services and practices.

• Probation Officer Training – For more than 20 years, the NCJFCJ has provided training to multi-disciplinary groups such as juvenile probation officers. A recent publication, “Fundamental Skills for Juvenile Probation Officers: A Curriculum,” is one example of this initiative for the essential role of juvenile probation.

• Detention Reform is an NCJFCJ initiative being implemented with the assistance of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to encourage detention alternatives.

• Juvenile Justice Management is a new graduate academic justice degree program that has been developed at the University of Nevada, Reno for court directors, justice administrators and supervisors to enhance the effective delivery of services to communities.

DOMESTIC RELATIONS – With nearly half of all marriages ending in divorce, and the legal and social definition of family undergoing transition, courts are being called upon more than ever to intervene in human relationships. In order to reduce the detrimental effects on children and families, the NCJFCJ is committed to keeping judges and other court service professionals abreast of the latest developments in the field. The NCJFCJ offers technical assistance and continuing education opportunities on topics such as: child custody; visitation (access) and developmentally appropriate parenting plans; relocation (move-away) cases; child support; the rights of same sex couples; divorce; property division and alimony; pro se litigants; alternate dispute resolution techniques;  interviewing children; and the unified family court.

FAMILY VIOLENCE – Domestic violence is one of the greatest social ills impacting the nation, and each year it jeopardizes the lives of millions of women and their families. The NCJFCJ’s Family Violence Department (FVD) has advanced social changes in courts and communities across the country by providing cutting-edge training, technical assistance, and policy development on the topic of family violence.

The FVD’s major activities include:

• Effective Intervention in Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment: Guidelines for Policy and Practice (known as the Greenbook) provides a way to fill the gap between the needs of families and the institutional and service responses to them, and fosters a dialogue among these systems about how to create safety and well-being for families with multiple victims.

• Enhancing Judicial Skills in Cases Involving Abuse and Sexual Assault Against the Elderly and Individuals with Disabilities enhances the judiciary’s ability to respond to cases involving violence against older individuals and individuals with disabilities through the development of curricula focusing on each of these groups.

• The Full Faith and Credit Initiative increases the capacity of courts and communities to enforce intra- and interstate orders of protection by developing, testing, and promoting strategies for successful enforcement of protection orders.

• Interagency Collaboration to Address Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment provides technical assistance to selected sites implementing the recommendations of the above-mentioned Greenbook with the goal of improving outcomes for battered women and their children through systems change and other efforts built around non-systemic responses.

• National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence teaches judges about the dynamics of domestic violence and stalking, as well as how to develop greater skills in judicial fact-finding and decision-making, work toward cultural competence, and exercise leadership in the system-wide responses to violence of their courts and communities.

• OVW Targeted Technical Assistance: Framework and Safe Havens Project provides court-related and legal training, technical assistance and educational tools relating to the issues presented by the provision of supervised visitation and exchange services for victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault and stalking.

• Safe Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange provides information and technical assistance to supervised visitation and exchange practitioners who enhance the response to and improve the quality of services to victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault and stalking.

• The Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody provides access to the best possible sources of information and assistance to those working in the field of domestic violence and child protection and custody.


JUVENILE JUSTICE RESEARCH – The NCJFCJ’s research division, the National Center for Juvenile Justice, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the country’s only non-profit research organization concentrating solely on the juvenile justice system and the prevention of juvenile delinquency and child abuse and neglect. Established in 1973, the NCJJ concentrates its efforts on the improvement of the juvenile and family court system through applied, legal, and systems research.

Current NCJJ activities include:

• Data Collection – Since 1975, the National Juvenile Court Data Archive has collected more than 20 million automated delinquency and status offense case records from courts nationwide. The project produces annually a set of reports documenting the activities of the juvenile courts –including Juvenile Court Statistics, published since 1929, making it the oldest juvenile justice publication series in the United States.

• Data Analysis – The NCJJ maintains electronic copies of all the major national datasets dealing with juvenile crime and victimization collected by others (e.g., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics). With this information, NCJJ researchers study topics ranging from juvenile suicide and victimization to juvenile crime, arrests, court, and correctional trends.

• Data Dissemination – The Center maintains OJJDP’s online Statistical Briefing Book, a website that provides quick access to juvenile justice statistics and interactive analysis tools for a wide range of data. Recent publications include: Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report (released March 2006); How Families and Communities Influence Youth Victimization; Prevalence and Development of Child Delinquency; Juvenile Arrests 2001; Race as a Factor in Juvenile Arrests; and Juveniles in Court.

• Technical Assistance – In 2005, the NCJJ responded to more than 740 requests for assistance from all regions of the country, and provided on-site technical assistance in Illinois, Arizona and Pennsylvania. NCJJ's popular State Juvenile Justice Profiles website features rich, descriptive information and analysis regarding each state's juvenile justice system, illustrating the uniqueness of the country's 51 separate juvenile justice systems. More than 21,000 downloads of publications were completed through NCJJ's website in 2005.

• Publications – In addition to the above-named publications, NCJJ published in 2002 an updated Desktop Guide to Good Juvenile Probation Practice, a widely influential desk reference and training resource that offers a comprehensive treatment of theory and practice of juvenile probation, information on standards and best practices, and a text and a starting point for a fundamental skills training curriculum. NCJJ also publishes the monthly Juvenile and Family Law Digest, which summarizes recent case law in the juvenile justice field, and Snapshot, a comparative analysis of state statutes on key legal issues.

Contact information for:
National Center for Juvenile Justice
3700 South Water Street, Suite 200
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: 412-227-6950 / Fax: 412-227-6955
Website: http://www.ncjj.org/