U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, Innovation - Partnerships – Safer Neighborhoods Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Serving Children, Families and Communities OJJDP Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders

Direct Services

Direct service strategies address the needs of youth. Most direct service strategies for status offenders derive from one of two models: the treatment model or the environmental differences model. The treatment model suggests that intervention in the lives of status offenders is necessary to prevent additional or more serious offending. This model views status-offending behavior as a symptom of a larger problem (Speirs, 1989). The environmental differences model suggests that the source of delinquency lies in the environment rather than the youth (Davidson et al., 1990). This model suggests that programs should be designed to alter a youth’s opportunities through skills training, education, and other programs. More than 20 years ago, the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission’s Juvenile Justice Division endorsed this perspective when it found that the chronic status offender’s environment is characterized by failure and rejection, beginning with a total breakdown in the child’s relationship with his or her family and carrying forward into out-of-home placements and school (Illinois Law Enforcement Commission, 1994). Today, many approaches reflect a more comprehensive perspective of the status offender’s needs (i.e., one that combines these two models) either by providing services to the entire family, or by holding both the family and juvenile accountable. Many direct service strategies emphasize family involvement. 

The DSO Best Practices Database includes more than 30 different program types. Some programs are designed to address a certain type of status offense. Other programs were not necessarily developed with a particular status offense in mind, but have been shown to be useful tools in efforts to reduce and prevent that status offense. Below are reviews of selected direct service strategies.


 

OJJDP Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders Best Practices Database
The OJJDP Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders Best Practices Database  was created and developed by Development Services Group
under Cooperative Agreement #2008-JF-FX-0072.