How Courts Can Best Support Post-Dispositional Success for Challenging Delinquency Cases

 Judges play a key role in improving public safety not only through their adjudication, detention, and dispositional decisions but also by making research-based decisions about youth delinquency cases post-disposition. Sometimes, judges feel as though nothing is working, or that they have no good choices available to them when youth are not participating in services and not complying with probation conditions. When this happens, how should judges respond? How can the court help keep youth on track? This bench card provides research-based guidance on how courts can appropriately measure and support youth’s progress post-disposition and hold youth, families, and public systems accountable for results.