Current Projects
Building Data Capacity at Shuman Juvenile Detention Center
NCJJ is providing training and technical assistance to Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to increase their data capacity. Project activities include documenting meaningful performance measures, identifying key data elements, and providing hands on assistance in implementing a continuous quality improvement process.
The Dennis M. Mondoro Probation and Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Project
Under leadership of Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, NCJJ is supporting the data capacities of sites selected to receive training and technical assistance under this OJJDP-funded project. NCJJ will deliver recommendations for improving data capacity based on comprehensive data capacity assessments and provide support to the sites to implement the improvements.
Improving Juvenile Reentry Programs’ Data Collection, Analysis, and Reporting: R2D2
In partnership with the PbS Learning Institute, NCJJ is supporting reentry programs to effectively collect, analyze, and report data to improve services and outcomes in juvenile reentry. The project will develop an array of training and technical assistance opportunities to multi-disciplinary reentry teams and disseminate tools and resources to the field that promote the implementation of recommendations from earlier OJJDP-funded projects to generate standards for reentry programs and fundamental measures of juvenile justice.
Juvenile Justice Geography, Policy, Practice and Statistics Website
The MacArthur Foundation funds a series of legacy activities intended to sustain the momentum of their ten-year investment in juvenile justice reform, Models for Change. Among these concepts was a call to action by the Foundation to establish an online system for charting ongoing state change across fundamental juvenile justice issues. The NCJJ Director proposed a Juvenile Justice Geography, Practice and Statistics (jjgps.org) online repository designed to provide state policy makers and system stakeholders with the information on landscape of reform in the states to use both as a platform for inspiring change and finding solutions that have been applied in other states. The effort was initially funded by the MacArthur in 2013 and a website was launched by NCJJ in May 2014. The product currently addresses over 40 diverse juvenile justice topics, organized in the following six main menu areas:
Mapping Decision Points from School-Based Incidents to Exclusionary Disciplinary, Arrest and Referral to the Juvenile Justice System
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) is conducting research on decisions made about addressing behaviors, including arrest-eligible offenses, in school. The NCJFCJ received funding from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to describe how school discipline incidents are handled from school to law enforcement to the juvenile justice system. The first part of the study includes focus groups with educators and juvenile justice professionals in multiple sites across the country. The information from the focus group was used to develop system maps to better understand how various jurisdictions handle school behavioral incidents that potentially end up in the juvenile justice system. The second part of the study includes collecting administrative data from schools and courts to determine if there is an association between violations of school codes, exclusionary discipline practices, and arrests made in school.
National Juvenile Court Data Archive
The Archive annually collects more than one million automated case
records from roughly 2,300 juvenile courts representing 84% of the
juvenile population. Currently the Archive houses over 40 million
records dating back to the 1970s. These records are the basis for the
annual Juvenile Court Statistics reports (a reporting series
dating back to 1927) that present a national description of the
workloads and activities of the Nation's juvenile courts. .
In addition to the annual Juvenile Court Statistics series of
reports, products stemming from the Archive include OJJDP Bulletins, and
Fact Sheets, the juvenile court information on OJJDP's Statistical Briefing Book web site, and the interactive web-based analysis package Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics that enables users to conduct their own national analyses of the automated records of delinquency cases.
Visit the National Juvenile Court Data Archive project page to learn more.
National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Project
This project serves as OJJDP's statistical analysis center for
responding to the research needs of OJJDP and the juvenile justice
community. The project has completed dozens of reports and web-based
products on a wide range of topics. These reports are based on analyses
of the major juvenile justice national data sets (e.g., the Census of
Juveniles in Residential Placement, the Juvenile Residential Facility
Census, the National Incident-Based Reporting System, the Uniform Crime
Reporting Program, and the National Crime Victimization Survey). The
most notable publications are the Juvenile Offenders and Victims series
of reports, bulletins, and fact sheets that have become a standard in
the field. The web-based products are available through the OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book,
a site developed and maintained by the project, that presents the most
current statistics on juvenile offenders and the juvenile justice
system. The project has also prepared a series of web-based, interactive
data analysis and presentation tools that enable users to perform
custom analyses of data covering a range of juvenile justice topics.
Visit the Data Analysis Tools section
of the Statistical Briefing Book to find out what is available. The
project, like its predecessor project the Juvenile Justice Statistics
and Systems Development Program, also works with national and local data
collectors to improve the quality of their data.
Visit the National Juvenile Justice Data Analysis Project project page to learn more.
Nevada Family Court Assessment
The National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) was retained by the Nevada Supreme Court in January of 2019 to conduct an assessment of the family court model operating in the 2nd and 8th Judicial District Courts of Nevada. A family court model was adopted as the court operations framework in the 2nd and 8th Judicial Districts of Nevada, beginning in January of 1993. Since that time there has never been an evaluation of how the family court model is operating. NCJJ will assess the status of Nevada’s family court reforms amid the current operating environment and pressures on juvenile and family law dockets.
Nevada Juvenile Justice Evidence-Based Program Resource Center
Nevada’s Assembly Bill (AB) 472 set forth numerous juvenile justice reforms designed to improve outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system, including the creation of the Juvenile Justice Evidence-Based Program Resource Center (EBP Resource Center). The Nevada Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) awarded a contract to the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) to design and implement the EBP Resource Center in collaboration with DCFS and other juvenile justice stakeholders in Nevada. The EBP Resource Center will support the selection and implementation of evidence-based programs across Nevada while providing training and technical assistance to DCFS staff, each regional department of juvenile services, and treatment providers.
Transforming the Desktop Guide to Good Juvenile Probation Practice
With support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, NCJJ is revising the influential Desktop Guide to Good Juvenile Probation Practice. The past decade has seen many advancements in the field’s integration of the science of adolescent development and evidence-based practices. This project provides the opportunity to update a well relied on guide with current research, lessons from reform efforts, and inputs from leaders in multidisciplinary fields work in or adjacent to the juvenile justice system and continue to contribute to the professionalism of juvenile probation.