Center for Juvenile Justice Reform

Center Publications and Materials

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CJJR Papers and Events

Addressing the Needs of Multi-System Youth: Strengthening the Connection between Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice

Georgetown Public Policy Institute's Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR) and Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps (RFK) are delighted to announce the release of Addressing the Needs of Multi-System Youth: Strengthening the Connection between Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice, a paper co-authored by Denise Herz, Phil Lee, Lorrie Lutz, Macon Stewart, John Tuell, and Janet Wiig. The paper was released at a symposium held at Georgetown University on March 1, 2012.

Youth known to both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems--commonly referred to as crossover or dually-involved youth--tend to go undetected, following a stealth-like pathway between these two systems. As a group of children and youth who suffer from the effects of childhood trauma, they are often underserved as they move from one system to another, experiencing the negative consequences of infrequent cross system coordination related to case planning and the delivery of needed services. Little was known about this population, especially the factors that impacted their system experience. Fortunately, researchers have been working to better understand the trajectory many crossover youth follow between systems and into adulthood. As a result, we now know much more about their characteristics as a population and the factors associated with their crossing over.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for jurisdictions to utilize in their efforts to better serve crossover youth. In this regard, the authors' hope that the content presented will help develop a better understanding of how to prevent youth from crossing over between systems and ensure that all youth who are served by both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems experience them in a manner that provides for their safety, well being and permanence, while also ensuring public safety.

CJJR and RFK thank the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, through the Models for Change: Systems Reform in Juvenile Justice Initiative, for the generous support that made this paper, and the symposium at which it was released, possible.

Paper (PDF)

Additional Materials from the Symposium

Safety, Fairness, Stability: Repositioning Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare to Engage Families and Communities

Georgetown University Public Policy Institute's Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR) is delighted to announce the release of Safety, Fairness, Stability: Repositioning Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare to Engage Families and Communities, a paper co-authored by Joan Pennell, Carol Shapiro, and Carol Wilson Spigner, with Commentaries by Kordnie Jamillia Lee and Trina Osher. The paper was released at a symposium held at Georgetown University on May 13, 2011.

Connections to family and community are often severed, at least temporarily, as a result of a youth's involvement in the juvenile justice, child welfare, and/or mental and behavioral health systems. Ensuring that these connections are not severed permanently, or are maintained in the first place, begins by engaging families and communities in a more constructive and respectful manner. This paper recognizes that such connections must be supported in a manner that allows families and communities to provide a sense of stability and permanency in a youth's life and the life-long connections that youth will need as they transition into adulthood.

The authors reinforce the need for child welfare, juvenile justice, mental and behavioral health, schools, and other child-serving systems to work together, across systems, when engaging youths and their families. In this regard, the paper provides a pathway to improving these systems in a fashion that will leave children, youth and families with a different set of experiences that strengthen the crucial connections in a youth's life, while also providing greater safety, fairness, and stability. This pathway, however, requires that stakeholders working within these systems adopt a new lens in viewing their work in engaging families.

This paper and symposium were sponsored, with support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and Children's Bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention within the U.S. Department of Justice, to accelerate a movement in this direction. It is the hope of the authors and CJJR that by reading Safety, Fairness, Stability: Repositioning Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare to Engage Families and Communities, agency leaders, supervisors, line staff, judges, lawyers, and other youth- and family-serving professionals will look at family engagement in a different light, building on their efforts to date to improve how they work with the families with whom they come in contact.

Paper (PDF)

Additional Materials from the symposium:

Improving the Effectiveness of Juvenile Justice Programs: A New Perspective on Evidence-Based Practice

Paper (PDF)
Press Release (PDF)

Additional materials from the symposium:

North Carolina PowerPoint

NC legislation related to the use of evidence-based practices

Tennessee PowerPoint

"A Question of Evidence: A Critique of Risk Assessment Models Used in the Justice System" (Baird 2009)

Photos from the Symposium

Addressing the Unmet Educational Needs of Children and Youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems

Paper (PDF)
Press Release (PDF)

Additional materials from the symposium:

Whalen Presentation

Supporting Youth In Transition to Adulthood: Lessons Learned from Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice.

Paper

Additional Materials from the Symposium

Racial and Ethnic Disparity and Disproportionality in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice: A Compendium (2007, January) For a copy of the pdf please click here

Bridging Two Worlds: Youth Involved in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems, A Policy Guide for Improving Outcomes (PDF)

Policy Forum: Youth Known to Both the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems.
(Oct. 27, 2009), Miami, Florida.

The Nurse-Family Partnership Program: Early Intervention that Works.
(Sept. 21, 2009), Washington, DC.

Home Visitation Programs as an Early Intervention Strategy.
Co-written by Alayna M. Stone and Emily E. Page.

Other Resources

Webinar on Juvenile Reentry in Concept and Practice National Reentry Resource Center. This webinar addressed the key components of juvenile reentry, including assessing and classifying reoffending risk, needs, and strengths; balancing social control and services; and blending sanctions and incentives into a graduated response system designed to promote law abidance and prosocial behavior change. The webinar featured David M. Altschuler, Ph.D and was hosted by Shay Bilchik.

Shay Bilchik presenting "Improving Delinquency Outcomes for Abused and Neglected Children: Changing the Paradigm Through Multi-System Collaboration" at the Juvenile Justice in the Age of the Second Chance Act, the Youth Promise Act, and the JJDP Reauthorization Bill: Research Guided Policy Implications for Maximizing Reentry Initiatives for Adolescents congressional briefing on October 26, 2010.

Bilchik, Shay and Renee Wilson-Simmons (April 2010). “Preventing Teen Pregnancy Among Youth in Foster Care.” APHSA Policy and Practice. pp 16-19.

Law Advice, (April 2010): Video of Shay Bilchik on reforming the juvenile justice system.

Blog entries by Shay Bilchik: “Addressing Disproportionality in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice”, Part 1 (January 12, 2010) and Part 2 (January 13, 2010).

Video of Shay Bilchik and Vincent Schiraldi at “How to Make Change: Implementing Cost-Effective Juvenile Justice Strategies,” (November 11, 2009). Note: Select the collapsible pane with the forum title to access the video.

Bilchik, S. (2009, September). Addressing Disparity and Disproportionality: Lessons from Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice. MA JDAI Second Annual Conference, Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Bell, William (27 February 2009). Keynote Speech. Social Justice for America's Children and Youth. Sponsored by Georgetown University's Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership and the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform.

Nash, Michael and Shay Bilchik (2009, Winter). Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice - Two Sides of the Same Coin Part II. Juvenile and Family Justice Today. National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, 22-25.

Nash, Michael and Shay Bilchik (2008, Fall). Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice: Two Sides of the Same Coin. Juvenile and Family Justice Today. National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, 16-20.

Bilchik, S. (2007, April). The importance of universal school-based programs in preventing violent and aggressive behavior. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 33, 101-103.

Bilchik, S. (2007, October). The intersection of the juvenile justice and child welfare systems: Implications for policy and practice. OJJDP Training Conference, Denver, Colorado.

Bilchik, S. (n.d.) The role of foster parents when the child welfare and juvenile justice systems come together. The Judges' Page. National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

Bilchik, S. (2007, May). Strengthening the juvenile justice field. Juvenile and Family Justice Today. National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

Bilchik, S. (2007). Mentoring: A Promising Intervention for Children of Prisoners. Alexandria, VA: MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership.

Summary Results of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform February 2008 Survey of Juvenile Corrections Administrators and American Probation and Parole Association Members. (Family and Youth Summary -April 2009).

Summary Results of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform February 2008 Survey of Juvenile Corrections Administrators and American Probation and Parole Association Members.

Raw Data from the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform February 2008 Survey of Juvenile Corrections Administrators and American Probation and Parole Association Members.

Video clips of Shay Bilchik discussing important issues in the field of juvenile justice at Eastern Kentucky University on April 9, 2008 (QuickTime needed, download here)

Center Director Shay Bilchik Appears in Radio Spot