Office of Justice Programs, Innovation - Partnerships – Safer Neighborhoods

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Serving Children, Families and Communities

The OJJDP Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO) Best Practices Database is designed to assist jurisdictions in identifying and implementing evidence-based initiatives that lead to the removal of status offenders from secure detention or correctional facilities, in accordance with the deinstitutionalization of status offenders (DSO) requirement of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) of 2002. OJJDP hopes that these resources will contribute to preventing status offenses and help jurisdictions identify programs, policies, and practices that address the needs of status-offending and at-risk youth in their communities.

The central feature of this Web site is a searchable database containing profiles of programs and strategies in each of five major status offense categories:

§ Truancy

§ Running away

§ Ungovernability/Incorrigibility

§ Violating curfew laws

§ Violating underage liquor laws

Within the five status offense categories, programs and practices are organized into two groups: direct services and system change. Direct services target status offenders and their families, as well as at-risk or system-involved youth, their families, and communities. System change strategies seek to modify aspects of the juvenile justice system that may contribute to DSO violations and is accomplished by altering laws and ordinances, policies, and practices.

The database allows jurisdictions to choose programs and strategies in the five status offense categories based on specific search criteria (e.g., intervention type, target population characteristics). The database also includes examples of system change strategies, such as laws, ordinances, policies, and procedures that are designed to prevent or reduce status offenses and promote state DSO compliance. See DSO Strategies for an overview of direct services and system change strategies. See Search for Strategies to search the database.

About DSO presentsa conceptual framework that includes useful background information, definitions for the five major types of status offenses with links to reviews of the scientific literature, status offender demographics, DSO case statistics, and references. Each literature review addresses the following topics: scope of the problem, relevant theories, approaches to intervention and prevention, and evaluation results.

Other Resources supplies links to literature reviews on DSO-related topics and relevant publications, DSO-related links, a glossary, a link to the T&TA form that jurisdictions need to complete to request DSO-related training and technical assistance, and answers to frequently asked questions. References for all citations in the DSO Best Practices Database are located here. Rating Criteria describes the evidence-based strategy that OJJDP uses to determine whether a strategy should be included in the DSO Best Practices Database. Nominate a Program enables jurisdictions to recommend DSO programs and practices for inclusion in the database.