• Brevity is the soul of wit.
  -- Shakespeare

Brevity on the Net

Wednesday, July 20,  2005

 A weekly newsletter about juvenile justice
from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges,
Brevity brings you news and information from around the country and on the Internet.

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Juvenile Delinquency Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in Juvenile Delinquency Cases

NCJFCJ is pleased to announce the release of this exciting new benchbook of best practices for delinquency cases at our Annual Conference which wraps up today in Pittsburgh, Penn. The Guidelines identify 16 key principles for juvenile delinquency courts as well as recommended best practices throughout the juvenile delinquency court process.
Hardcopies of this publication are available for $20 each or the entire document (250+ pages plus a pocket with checklists) is downloadable at our website. Click on the link above.

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Defusing the Risk to Judicial Officials: The Contemporary Threat Management Process

The National Sheriffs’ Association CODA (Court Officers and Deputies Association) has available for order this manual on court security. It’s available for $15 per copy in zip format through an email address at the link above. CODA also offers court security training.

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Rural Children at a Glance

The ERS (Economic Research Service) of the Dept. of Agriculture provides economic, diversity, child poverty rates, and other information about rural children at this web site.

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Juvenile Court Statistics 2000

The National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh (NCJFCJ’s research arm) presents this 123 page report, the 74th such report in its series on Juvenile Court Statistics. The report analyzes offenses charged in delinquency cases, demographic characteristics of juveniles involved, sources of referral, and case processing. It also profiles status offense cases disposed between 1985 and 2000. The data in this report comes from more than 2,000 courts with jurisdiction over 71% of the juvenile population of the country in 2000.  
Downloadable pdf file.

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Young Readers Make Big Gains

Nine-year-olds in the U.S. are reading better than they have in 30 years, despite a tripling of the number of students from non-English-speaking homes. The disparity in achievement between races in both reading and math is narrowing too. The results for older students were flat.

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Trafficking in Persons

The NCJRS (National Criminal Justice Reference Service) website's latest “In the Spotlight” feature highlights trafficking in persons information and resources. It includes a number of links and resource organizations too.

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Bullying Lawsuit in California

In a lawsuit filed this week a California mother is asking the Los Altos School District to take responsibility for what happened to her son at school and is seeking unspecified damages. The sixth-grade boy was pushed and shoved daily at school. When a fellow student threw him to the ground and broke his collarbone the solution school officials offered was to transfer him to another school.

In another such case in 2000, the Anchorage School District in Alaska agreed to a $4.5 million settlement for the parents of a boy who attempted suicide after being bullied as his middle school. He suffered severe brain damage and now requires around-the-clock care.

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Maine’s New Teen Driving Policy

Teenage drivers who get pulled over for speeding will have their parents notified whenever their 16- and 17-year-old children get pulled over for violations ranging from driving aggressively to running a red light. The slogan for the policy is “Your parents will be the first to know.”  Gotta tell you it worked for me.  In my case the cop directed me to drive home and followed me there. Then he had a chat with my dad. Mortifying experience.

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U.S. Supreme Court Cases Important to Kids

This article looks at three cases that will come before the Supreme Court in its next session and how they are significant for kids and their families. They are:

• who bears the burden of proof in special education cases;
• parental consent for minors who seek abortions;and
• the issue of military recruiters on campus.

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Immigration and Language Guidelines for Child Welfare Staff

This report provides a brief overview of immigration regulations and issues and language issues for welfare workers in New York City and, although it is specific to New York, it should be useful to welfare people in other states too.  Includes a useful language identification card. 20 pages. Downloadable pdf file.

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In Brazil, Police Stations for Women Staffed by Women

More than 300 women’s police stations have opened in Brazil in the past 20 years. In the first year of operations, the number of charges filed by officers in women’s stations was more than double the number of charges for similar crimes against women filed by the predominantly male officers in regular precincts. Brazil’s innovation has grown into an international phenomenon with at least 10 nations in Latin America and Asia having similar systems for registering and investigating charges of domestic violence, threats, child abuse, sexual assaults, and other crimes often perpetrated against women.

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National Estimates of Children Missing Involuntarily or for Benign Reasons

This latest NISMART (National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children) Bulletin provides information on the numbers and characteristics of two groups not often recognized in the literature on missing children – children involuntarily missing because they were lost or injured and those missing because of a benign explanation such as a miscommunication or mistaken expectation. Children missing under these circumstances constituted 43% of all missing children reported to authorities – the second largest category after those classified as runaway/thrownaway. 12 pages. Downloadable pdf file.

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Navigating the Mental Health Maze: A Guide for Court Practitioners

I missed this publication last week when I wrote about the resources available at the BJA Mental Health Courts web site. This guide provides non-mental health professionals with a basic overview of mental illnesses, their diagnosis, and their treatment. It is divided into two parts:

• Part I discusses the mental health system and the shift from large institutions to a community-based system of care. Explains the relationship between the decrease in state hospital populations and the corresponding increase in people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system.
• Part II explains the current understanding of mental illnesses as genuine neurobiological diseases of the brain that can be managed effectively. Provides information on mental illnesses and their symptoms.

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AMBER Alert Criteria in a Pocket Card

Law enforcement recommended criteria for declaring an AMBER Alert and NCIC Entry Process and Criteria information are available on this downloadable pocket-sized card.

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Child Pornography Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related Crimes – Findings from the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study (N-JOV)

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children presents this groundbreaking national survey. The survey of law enforcement estimated the number of arrests for child-pornography possessors in Internet-related crimes and described characteristics of the offenders, the crimes they committed, and their victims. 60 pages. Downloadable pdf file.

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Campaign to Help Young Meth Lab Victims

A Riverside, Calif., police officer is organizing an effort to provide a mobile refuge to children caught up in raids on methamphetamine labs. Because of the toxic chemicals used in meth production, children in homes used as meth labs often are subjected to being stripped outdoors and sprayed down with hoses, then held in police cars while their parents are taken to prison. Tom Salisbury is working to raise $30,000 to purchase an RV that will be used to provide some privacy to children during raids and to reduce the trauma inflicted on the children.

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Using Cellphones to Collect Child Support

Virginia has started to subpoena cellphone companies to track down some of the state’s worst offenders for non-payment of child support. The plan has already yielded impressive results. The director of child support enforcement in Virginia says he has seen about a 20% success rate in obtaining information such as addresses and phone numbers from the companies.

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Upcoming NCJFCJ Conferences - For more details on the conferences listed below, click on this link.

• Managing Challenging Family Law Cases: A Practical Approach – August 29-Sept.1, 2005 – Reno, Nevada
• Judicial Response to Alcohol and Other Drugs – September 11-16, 2005 – Reno, Nevada
  Fall College: The Role of the Judge – September 11-16, 2005 – Reno, Nevada
• Forum on Children and Families in Court – October 16-19, 2005 – Cleveland, Ohio
• Juvenile Justice Management Institute – October 23-28, 2005 – Reno, Nevada
• Evidence in Juvenile and Family Court – October 23-28, 2005 – Reno, Nevada