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Brevity on the NetOctober 3, 2006 A monthly 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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NewsCopycat Shootings
Comments from experts about three separate school shootings in a week, the copycat effect, and a “socially toxic environment that glamorizes guns and violence.” James Alan Fox and Deborah Prothrow-Stith are interviewed. ++++++++++ Anti-Violence Funds for Schools Drop
Since 2001, federal funding for a grant program that helps US schools pay for programs to prevent substance abuse and violence has declined significantly. ++++++++++ Judge Edward Brunner Receives Rehnquist Award
Judge Edward Brunner of Barron County, Wisconsin, has been named recipient of the
2006 William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. The award recognizes Judge Brunner’s strong leadership and success in building programs that have become models for the nation. He is noted for establishing restorative justice practices in the Barron County courts and improving relations between state and tribal courts. Judge Brunner is a member of NCJFCJ. ++++++++++ Series Addresses Family Abuse Across Generations
The Des Moines Register is publishing a three part series on the Dyess family and Tracy Dyess who was 17 when she doused the floors of her family’s home with gas one night then lit it. Her brother and sister died in the fire. Tracy had tried to tell people she was being sexually abused for years, to no avail. ++++++++++ The Eight Americas: Mortality Rates Among U.S. Demographic Groups A black man living in a high-crime American city can expect to live 21 fewer years than a woman of Asian descent in the U.S. His life expectancy is, in fact, closer to that of people living in West Africa than it is to the average white American. This new study examines death in the United States through an unusual lens that refracts the population into eight demographic groups, the “Eight Americas.” The study reveals a United States that is pocked by places where millions of adults face a risk of premature death like that in Angola, Mexico, Nigeria and other parts of the developing world. Those differences have not changed in two decades. This article comes with a graphic showing the eight demographic groups. ++++++++++ How to Teach Kids About Sexual Assault
Although the reported rate of rape and sexual assault has declined by almost 85% since the 1970s, this doesn’t mean that sexual assault awareness and prevention education is no longer needed. Every two and one-half minutes someone is sexually assaulted in the United States. Sexual assault victims are primarily the young: 44% of them are under 18 and 80% are under 30. This article profiles a number of sexual assault prevention programs. ++++++++++ Does the Fashion Industry Warp Young Girls’ Body Image?
According to this article, most runway models are 14 to 19 years old, with an average age of 16 or 17. Many are 5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11. They average 120 to 124 pounds. They wear a size 2 or 4. They are naturally thin and have incredibly long legs compared to the rest of their body. Some of them are teens who haven’t developed their curves yet. The thin sexy ideal represented by models and actresses is impossible to attain for most girls and women, leading to unhealthy behaviors to try to control weight. This image is filtering down to girls as young as 9 and 10. ++++++++++ Cocaine, the Soft Drink A new, highly caffeinated soft drink called Cocaine has attracted considerable attention since it was introduced last month, most of it negative. It appears that the company that makes Cocaine has done nothing but benefit from the publicity.The drink is a salted, heavily caffeinated, sugary drink.
Cocaine web site
New York Times article ++++++++++ Hotline to Help Teens Handle Dating Violence The hotline will be run by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which serves primarily adults. When fully functioning next year the hotline will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Teens will field calls from noon to 2 a.m. while young adults 18 to 24 will work overnight to serve college-age callers. ++++++++++ Debit Cards for Child Support
The Texas Debit Card gives San Antonio parents a new way to receive child support with no worry about lost or stolen checks or wondering if a deposit has cleared. ++++++++++ NCJFCJ Employment Opportunities Click on the link above to take a look at the current job openings available at NCJFCJ. ++++++++++ ProgramsCook County Juvenile Advisory Council (JAC)
JAC is a partnership of probation staff and court wards working together to develop a client-based perspective on the Department’s program and policies. Youth Representatives to the Council are equal partners and enjoy the same standing, benefits and rights as adult staff members. JAC relies heavily on its members to guide its work by contributing their thoughts and insights to an ongoing examination of the many aspects of the probation experience. Youth Representatives present the Probation Orientation and the Exit Interview Programs all probationers are required to attend. Preliminary research indicates that clients who attend JAC’s Probation Orientation Program return to court for violations approximately half as often as clients who miss the program. The link above will take to you a description of the JAC and related documents. ++++++++++ Raising a Thinking Child
Primary prevention program for use by parents of 4-to-7-year-old children that has been recognized as an evidence-based parent training program by the OJJDP Model Programs Guide. The program focuses on developing a set of interpersonal cognitive problem solving skills that relate to overt behaviors as early as preschool. ++++++++++ Driver Education Programs This article from Autoweek describes graduated drivers licenses, a number of programs and approaches to teenage driving, and includes a list of web site addresses for driving skills programs for teens. ++++++++++ Juvenile Justice System The LINK – Fall 2006
This issue of CWLA’s juvenile justice newsletter includes a lead article on deviant peer contagion and another on promoting youth involvement in decision-making and public policy development. This one includes more information on the Cook County JAC described above. ++++++++++ Youth Under 18 in the Adult Criminal Justice System
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) presents this fact sheet of statistics and issues related to persons under the age of 18 involved in the adult criminal justice system in the US. Loaded with graphs and charts. ++++++++++ Juvenile Justice Report Cards
Report cards are designed to inform communities on how well their juvenile justice systems are working. This article describes report cards in four communities in the country: Deschutes County, Ore., Pittsburgh, Pa. , South Carolina, and Cook County (Chicago), Ill. ++++++++++ Child Abuse/ExploitationProject Safe Childhood Web site with resources on protecting children from online exploitation and abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect General Information Packet
The Child Welfare Information Gateway provides an information packet that includes fact sheets about child maltreatment, child abuse and neglect information, statistical information about the prevalence of child abuse and neglect, and the characteristics of victims and offenders. The packet also includes directories of federal clearinghouses, hotlines, state agencies, and other organizations that disseminate information about family and domestic violence and substance abuse. ++++++++++ Alcohol and Drugs2005 Survey on Drug Use and Health
This report provides the latest data on prevalence and correlates of substance use, serious mental illness, related problems, and treatment in the US. The survey indicates that while some baby boomers who were in their teens and 20s when drug-use rates peaked in the 1970s are taking their drug habits well into middle age, today’s youth aren’t embracing drugs as enthusiastically.
Illicit drug use among baby boomers 50-59 rose 63% from 2002 to 2005. Drug use among youths 12-17 fell slightly for the third straight year, with 9.9% reporting illicit drug use during the previous month in 2005 compared with 10.6% in 2004. 11.2% in 2003, and 11.6% in 2002.
Read an article about the survey here. ++++++++++ The Importance of Family Dinners
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) in a new report finds that teens having two or fewer family dinners per week are twice as likely to smoke daily and get drunk monthly. Compared to parents who say their families have dinners together frequently, those who have infrequent family dinners are: Five times likelier to say they have a fair or poor relationship with their teen One and a half times likelier to say they know the parents of their teen’s friends not very well or not at all; More than twice as likely to say they do not know the names of their teen’s teachers; and Twice as likely to say that parents deserve not very much blame or no blame at all when a teenager uses illegal drugs.
The more often children and teens eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke drink or use drugs. Here is a link to Ten Benefits of Frequent Family Dinners. ++++++++++ Blueprint for the States
Join Together presents this summary of its Blueprint Report which contains a broad set of recommendations for optimizing state governments to effectively address alcohol and other drug problems in communities.
Click here to read an article about the Blueprint Report. ++++++++++ Addressing Early Onset Alcohol Dependency
A study reported in the September 2006 issue of Pediatrics says that individuals who become alcohol dependent before age 25 are less likely to seek treatment than those who become dependent at age 30 or older. They are more likely to have multiple dependence episodes of longer duration and to meet more dependence diagnostic criteria. ++++++++++ Prevention Programs in Middle School Can Reduce Meth Use
Research supported by NIDA says prevention programs conducted in middle school can reduce meth use among rural adolescents years later. The study appears in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. ++++++++++ Permanency Planning/Foster Care/AdoptionPermanency Planning Today
The Summer 2006 issue of the newsletter of the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning includes articles on youth defined permanency, adultism and cultural competence, race matters in child welfare, and a lengthy resource section. ++++++++++ Foster Parent College
Online training for foster, adoptive, kinship and birth parents. Interactive courses provide advice and information from experts dealing with serious child behavior problems. The web site includes courses on kinship care, ADHD/ADD/ODD, positive parenting, safe parenting, sexualized behavior, lying, stealing, fire-setting, and more. ++++++++++ Public Child Welfare Adoption Topics
The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Adoption provides links to information on the following topics: kinship adoption, open adoption, foster parents, adoption assistance, compassion fatigue, concurrent planning, decision making and matching, family group decision making, family preparation and assessment, older child adoption, sibling adoption, mediation, and post adoption assistance. ++++++++++ Mental HealthNew Hope for Kids with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder
New research says that a regimen of constant mental stimulation and nurturing during the first two years of life can help children with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS or FASD) catch up developmentally with their peers. ++++++++++ The Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children
A user manual for CPS caseworkers working with fathers and their impact on children’s well being. Includes a section on fatherhood programs and federal fatherhood initiatives and appendices with resource listings and tips for dads. Downloadable by section, which tells me this is a fairly long document. ++++++++++ Katie A. v Bonta
This California foster care case on the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law In Court section of its web site includes links to a number of documents of interest. Click on the link above for a review of all the documents in Katie A. v Bonta or click on the links below. I found both these to be useful: Wraparound and Therapeutic Foster Care and Their Implications for Taxpayers
Katie A Practice Principles ++++++++++ New Research on the Causes of ADHD
About one-third of attention deficit cases among US children may be linked with tobacco smoke before birth or lead to exposure afterward, according to new research. Lead levels considered acceptable appear to increase a child’s risk of having ADHD. New research build on previous research linking attention problems, including ADHD, with childhood lead exposure and smoking during pregnancy offers one of the first estimates of how much these environmental factors might contribute. ++++++++++ Understanding and Dealing with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder
This page will take you to information and resources on these two disorders whether you are a patient or a healthcare professional. ++++++++++ From the Department of Justice and Other Federal AgenciesInnovations in Justice: Information Sharing Strategies and Best Practices
Learn about, explore, and understand how to plan, manage, and implement technology solutions in information sharing systems in these 2 ½ day BJA regional conferences.
San Diego – November 28-30, 2006
Houston – February 6-8, 2007
Minneapolis- March 27-29, 2007
Jacksonville – June 4-6, 2007 ++++++++++ National Indian Child Welfare Association Professional Development Workshops
October 23-25, 2006, in Portland, Ore. Topics include ICWA, Advanced, Reconciliation in Child Welfare, and Meth in Tribal Child Welfare. More information, to register, click on the link above.
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Joey Binard, for the Juvenile & Family Law Department, NCJFCJ
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Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice
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