Glossary
Adjudication: Judicial determination (judgment) that a juvenile is responsible for the delinquency or status offense that is charged in a petition or other charging document.
Aftercare services: Reintegrative services that prepare juveniles in residential placement for reentry into the community by establishing the necessary collaborative arrangements with the community to ensure the delivery of prescribed services and supervision. (Also see definition of Residential Placement.)
Alternatives to detention: Alternative services provided to a juvenile offender in the community to avoid placement in a detention facility. (Also see definition of Detention facility.)
Antisocial behavior: A pervasive pattern of behavior that displays disregard for and violation of the rights of others, societal mores, or the law (such as deceitfulness, irritability, consistent irresponsibility, lack of remorse, failure to conform to social norms).
Arrest: Hold time in legal custody, either at the scene of a crime or as a result of investigations. Arrest also can be the result of a complaint filed by a third party, an outstanding warrant, or a revocation of probation or parole.
Assessment: Evaluation or appraisal of a candidate's suitability for placement in a specific treatment modality/setting and the relationship to custody and supervision. In mental health, an assessment refers to comprehensive information required for the diagnosis of a mental health disorder. An assessment differs from a screening, which is used to determine if an assessment is needed. (Also see definition of Screening.)
Average daily population (ADP): Is calculated by dividing the total number of days all placed youth spent in a program/facility by the number of days in a specified period (e.g. sum of all days in the program/facility for all youth placed during the year/number of days in the year).
Average length of stay (ALOS): Average length of stay is usually calculated on those youth who end a service/placement during the reporting period. ALOS is the sum of all the stays for those released during the period divided by the number of “releases.” (Also see definition of Length of Stay.)
Best practice: Strategies and programs demonstrated through research and evaluation to be effective at preventing or intervening in juvenile delinquency. Best practice models include program models that have been shown, through rigorous evaluation and replication, to achieve target outcomes. Model programs can come from many valid sources [e.g., OJJDP's Model Programs Guide, Blueprints for Violence Prevention (a project of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado), SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices, State model program resources).
Case rate: Number of cases disposed per 1,000 juveniles in the population. The population base used to calculate the case rate varies. For example, the population base for the male case rate is the total number of male youth age 10 or older who are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts.
Child abuse: Acts that cause physical and/or emotional injury to the child (not necessarily resulting in a court finding). Types of child abuse include physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.
Child neglect: Acts that include abandonment, expulsion from the home, failure to seek remedial health care or delay in seeking care, inadequate supervision, disregard for hazards in the home, or inadequate food, clothing, or shelter (not necessarily resulting in a court finding).
Civil rights violation: The violation of a right or rights belonging to a person by reason of citizenship including especially the fundamental freedoms and privileges guaranteed by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution and subsequent acts of Congress including the right to legal, social, and economic equality.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy/treatment (CBT): A problem-focused approach designed to help people identify and change the dysfunctional beliefs, thoughts, and patterns of behavior that contribute to their problems. Its underlying principle is that thoughts affect emotions, which then influence behaviors. CBT combines two very effective kinds of psychotherapy—cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy. Cognitive therapy concentrates on thoughts, assumptions, and beliefs. Behavioral therapy concentrates on specific actions and environments that either change or maintain behaviors
Community assessment center (CAC): An integrated case management system that provides youth with a single 24-hour centralized point of intake and assessment to ensure the provision of appropriate and unduplicated treatment services. CACs use a collaborative approach that leads to more integrated and effective cross-system services for juveniles and their families. CACs are designed to positively influence the lives of youth and divert them from a path of serious, violent, and chronic delinquency.
Community service: Work performed by an offender for the benefit of the community. It is justified in a restorative justice perspective as a method of addressing the harm experienced by communities when a crime occurs. However, it can be used instead for retributive purposes or as a means of rehabilitating the offender. What distinguishes its use as a restorative response is the attention given to identifying the particular harm suffered by the community as a result of the offender's crime, and the effort to ensure that the offender's community service contributes to repairing that particular harm.
Commitment: A court order giving guardianship of a juvenile to the state department of juvenile justice or corrections. The facility in which a juvenile may be placed may be publicly or privately operated and may range from a secure correctional placement to a non-secure or staff-secure facility, group home, foster care, or day treatment setting.
Compliance: In order to receive its full fiscal year allocation of Formula Grants program funds, a state must first demonstrate compliance with the DSO, jail removal, separation, and DMC core protections. Compliance with the first three core protections is demonstrated through data provided in the state's annual Compliance Monitoring Report. Compliance with the DMC requirement is determined by information provided in the State's Comprehensive 3-Year Plan and subsequent 3-Year Plan Updates. Full compliance is achieved in each core requirement when:
Deinstitutionalization of status offenders: a State has removed 100 percent of status offenders and nonoffenders from secure detention and correctional facilities.
Jail removal: a State demonstrates that the last submitted monitoring report, covering 12 months of actual data, demonstrates that no juveniles were held in adult jails or lockups in circumstances that were in violation of jail removal.
OJJDP has developed de minimis standards for States that have not achieved full compliance with the DSO and jail removal requirements. See the Guidance Manual for Monitoring Facilities Under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2002 for more information.
Separation: a State can demonstrate that a) the last submitted monitoring report, covering a full 12 months of data, demonstrates that no juveniles were incarcerated in circumstances that were in violation of Section 223 (a) (12); or b) the instances of noncompliance reported in the last submitted monitoring report do not indicate a pattern or practice but rather constitute isolated instances.
Disproportionate minority contact: a State can demonstrate progress made each year in addressing specific delinquency prevention and system improvement efforts to reduce the rate of contact with the juvenile justice system of a specific minority group, if that rate is significantly greater than the rate of contact for whites or other minority groups.
Compliance Monitoring Report: OJJDP's Formula Grant Regulation requires States to submit information annually regarding compliance with the DSO, jail removal, and separation requirements. This information is submitted through the Compliance Monitoring (CM) report. States that have been determined by the OJJDP Administrator to have achieved full compliance may be exempt from the annual monitoring report requirements following a written request.
Coping skills: The ability to regulate the emotional consequences of stressful or potentially stressful events.
Correctional facility: Any public or private residential facility with construction fixtures or staffing models designed to physically restrict the movements and activities of juveniles or other individuals that is used for the placement, after adjudication and disposition, of any juvenile who has been adjudicated as having committed an offense, or of any other individual convicted of a criminal offense.
Court referral: A complaint or petition filed with the juvenile court.
Cultural competency: The ability of service agencies to understand the world view of clients of different cultures and adapt practices to ensure their effectiveness.
Curfew laws violator: A youth who violates an ordinance forbidding persons below a certain age from being in public places during set hours.
Day (or evening) treatment: A highly structured, nonresidential, community-based alternative that provides intensive supervision to ensure the community’s safety and a range of services for offenders to prevent future delinquent behavior. Offenders must report to the treatment facility on a daily basis at specified times (either during the day or in the evening) for a specified period (generally at least 5 days a week) but are allowed to return home at night.
Deinstitutionalization of status offenders (DSO): A JJDP Act core protection that prohibits juveniles who have been accused of, or adjudicated for, an act that would not be a crime if committed by an adult (status offenders), or juveniles not charged with an offense and who are dependent or neglected children (non-offenders), or alien juveniles from being detained or confined in secure detention or secure correctional facilities.
Delinquency: An act committed by a juvenile that would be criminal if committed by an adult. The juvenile court has jurisdiction over delinquent acts. Delinquent acts include crimes against persons, crimes against property, drug offenses, and crimes against public order.
Detention: Usually refers to the placement of a youth in a secure facility under court authority at some point between the time of referral to court intake and case disposition. Detention prior to case disposition is known as pre-dispositional detention. At times there is a need for detention after sentencing, known as post-dispositional detention. The reasons for post-dispositional detention generally include awaiting placement, short-term sentencing to detention, or being a danger to self or others.
Detention facility: A secure pre-dispositional/post-dispositional public or private facility (local or regional) with construction fixtures or staffing models designed to physically restrict the movements and activities of juveniles or other individuals that is used for the placement, after adjudication and disposition, of any juvenile who has been adjudicated as having committed an offense, or of any other individual convicted of a criminal offense. There are generally three types of detention centers: local, regional, and State. Local facilities are owned and operated by one local political jurisdiction. Regional facilities are owned and operated jointly by more than one local political jurisdiction. These facilities are eligible to receive youth from each member jurisdiction. State facilities are owned and operated by a State agency. These facilities are eligible to receive youth from designated (or all) localities within the State.
Disposition: Sanction ordered or treatment plan decided upon or initiated in a particular case by a juvenile court. The range of options available to a court typically includes commitment to an institution; placement in a group or foster home or other residential facility; probation (either regular or intensive supervision); referral to an outside agency, day treatment, or mental health program; or imposition of a fine, community service, or restitution.
Diversion: A mechanism designed to hold youth accountable for their actions by sanctioning behavior and in some cases securing services, but at the same time generally avoiding formal court processing in the juvenile justice system.
Disproportionate minority contact (DMC): A JJDP Act core protection that directs States to address juvenile delinquency prevention efforts and system improvement efforts designed to reduce, without establishing or requiring numerical standards or quotas, the disproportionate number of juvenile members of minority groups who come into contact with the juvenile justice system.
Family functioning: Interactions with family members that involve physical, emotional, and psychological activities.
Formal processing: Cases that appear on the official court calendar in response to the filing of a petition, complaint, or other legal instrument requesting the court to adjudicate a youth as a delinquent, status offender, or dependent child or to waive jurisdiction and transfer a youth to criminal court for processing as a criminal offender.
Formula Grants: The Formula Grants Program, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, provides grant monies to States and territories that support State and local delinquency prevention and intervention efforts and juvenile justice system improvements. Juvenile Justice Specialists in each State administer the funding through subgrants to units of local government, local private agencies, and Indian tribes for programs in accordance with legislative requirements.
Gang (youth gang): A youth gang is commonly thought of as a self-formed association of peers having the following characteristics: three or more members, generally ages 12 to 24; a gang name and some sense of identity, generally indicated by symbols such as clothing style, graffiti, and hand signs; some degree of permanence and organization; and an elevated level of involvement in delinquent or criminal activity.
Gender-specific services: Services designed to promote healthy attitudes, behaviors and lifestyles, and foster social competence in girls. Key program elements generally address issues in the context of relationships to peers, family, school, and community.
Goals: Broad statements (i.e., written in general terms) that convey a program's overall intent to change, reduce, or eliminate the problem described. Goals identify the program's intended short- and long-term results.
Graduated sanctions: A graduated sanctions system is a set of integrated intervention strategies designed to operate in unison to enhance accountability, ensure public safety, and reduce recidivism by preventing future delinquent behavior. The term graduated sanctions implies that the penalties for delinquent activity should move from limited interventions to more restrictive (i.e., graduated) penalties according to the severity and nature of the crime. In other words, youth who commit serious and violent offenses should receive more restrictive sentences than youth who commit less serious offenses.
Grant: An award of financial assistance the principal purpose of which is to transfer a thing of value from a Federal or State agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States (see 31 U.S.C. 6101(3)). A grant is distinguished from a contact, which is used to acquire property or services for the Federal Government's direct benefit or use.
Home confinement: A community-based program designed to restrict the activities of offenders in the community. Offenders live at home, go to work, run errands, attend school, and fulfill other responsibilities. Also known as house arrest.
Intake decision: The decision made by juvenile court intake that results in a case being handled informally at the intake level or petitioned and scheduled for an adjudicatory or waiver hearing.
Intensive supervision programs (ISPs): A community-based, nonresidential alternative that provide a high degree of control over offenders to ensure public safety, without the additional costs associated with confinement. ISPs have small caseloads, strict conditions of compliance, and high levels of contact and intervention by the probation officer or caseworker.
Intervention: Programs or services that are intended to disrupt the delinquency process and prevent a youth from penetrating further into the juvenile justice system.
Jail removal: A JJDP Act core protection that prohibits juveniles from being detained or confined in any jail or lockup for adults.
Juvenile: Youth at or below the upper age of original juvenile court jurisdiction, which varies depending on the State (e.g., the age is 15 in some States, and 17 in others).
Juvenile holdover program: Holdover programs are staffed by community volunteers or paid staff and administered by law enforcement, juvenile court, probation, or a nonprofit organization. Less restrictive than formal detention, they can be located in a nonsecure or combination secure/nonsecure setting. If a community’s detention and shelter care facilities are too small or too crowded to house the program, it can be located in an emergency shelter, probation office, hospital, hotel/motel, or other setting. In more remote areas, staff can be on call. Some areas house the program in a community assessment center.
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act: Congress enacted the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) (P. L. No. 93-415, 42 U.S.C. § 5601 et seq.) in 1974 and reauthorized the majority of its provisions in 2002. The JJDPA mandates that States comply with four core protections to participate in the JJDPA's Formula Grants program. This landmark legislation established OJJDP to support local and State efforts to prevent delinquency and improve the juvenile justice system.
Length of stay: The length of time that a juvenile stays in service or placement (in days). The length of stay (LOS) is a critical ingredient in projections of juvenile custody populations. A corrections or detention population can change dramatically if a facility's LOS begins to change, even if admissions are stable. The LOS is calculated by counting the number of days from the start date to the end date and calculating each person's LOS for a given time period. LOS is usually calculated on those youth who end a service/placement during the reporting period. The LOS total is divided by the number of stays to produce the average length of stay. (Also see definition of ALOS.)
Memorandum of understanding (MOU): An interagency agreement designed to enable all parties to facilitate the conduct of certain efforts of mutual interest. For example, a MOU may be signed between a police department and a school system that specifies the types of information to be shared, states the terms of the agreement, and includes the signatures of all parties to the agreement.
Mental health disorder: Any clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome characterized by the presence of distressing symptoms, impairment of functioning, or significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or loss of freedom. The concept does not include deviant behavior, disturbances that are essentially conflicts between the individual and society, or expected and culturally sanctioned responses to particular events.
Mentoring: A process in which the mentor serves as a role model, trusted counselor, or teacher who provides opportunities for development, growth, and support to less experienced individuals. In career mentoring, for example, individuals receive career-related information, encouragement, and advice.
Needs assessment: Systematic process to acquire an accurate, thorough picture of a youth's strengths and areas of vulnerability. The process is utilized to identify and prioritize treatment goals, develop a treatment plan, determine the appropriate level of supervision, and allocate funds and resources for services.
Neglect: Acts that include abandonment, expulsion from the home, failure to seek remedial health care or delay in seeking care, inadequate supervision, disregard for hazards in the home, or inadequate food, clothing, or shelter.
Nonpetitioned (informally handled) cases: Cases that duly authorized court personnel screen for adjustment without the filing of a formal petition. Such personnel include judges, referees, probation officers, other officers of the court, and/or an agency statutorily designated to conduct petition screening for the juvenile court.
Objectives: Are derived from the program goals and explain how the program goals will be accomplished. Objectives are well-defined, specific, quantifiable statements of the program's desired results and they should include the target level of accomplishment, thereby further defining goals and providing the means to measure program performance.
Parole: A conditional release from imprisonment that entitles the person to serve the remainder of the sentence outside the correctional institution as long as the terms of the release are not violated.
Performance measures/performance indicators: Particular values used to measure program outputs or outcomes. They represent the data/information that will be collected at the program level to measure the specific outputs and outcomes a program is designed to achieve. Therefore, they must be developed for each program objective. There are two types of performance indicators:
Output indicators measure the products of a program's implementation or activities. They are generally measured in terms of the volume of work accomplished, such as number of service s or products delivered, staff hired, systems developed, sessions conducted, materials developed, and policies, procedures, and/or legislation created. Examples include number of juveniles served, number of hours of service provided to participants, number of staff trained, number of detention beds added, number of materials distributed, number of reports written, and number of site visits conducted. They may also be referred to as process measures.
Outcome indicators measure the benefits or changes for individuals, the juvenile justice system, or the community as a result of the program. Outcomes may be related to behavior, attitudes, skills, knowledge, values, conditions, or other attributes. Examples are changes in the academic performance of program participants, changes in the recidivism rate of program participants, changes in client satisfaction level, changes in the conditions of confinement in detention, and changes in the county-level juvenile crime rate. There are two levels of outcomes:
• Short-term outcomes are the first benefits or changes that participants or the system experience and are the ones most closely related to and influenced by the program's outputs. They should occur during the program or by the program's end. For direct service programs, they generally include changes in recipients' awareness, knowledge, and attitudes. For programs designed to change the juvenile justice system, they include changes to the juvenile justice system that occur during or by the end of the program.
• Long-term outcomes are the ultimate outcomes desired for participants, recipients, the juvenile justice system, or the community. They are changes in practice, policy, decision-making, or behavior that result from participants' or service recipients' new awareness, knowledge, attitudes, or skills or changes in the juvenile justice system. They generally occur within 6 months to 1 year after the program ends. They should relate back to the program's goals (e.g., reducing delinquency).
Permanency plan: A proposal by the juvenile justice system and other youth-serving agencies to establish a permanent placement for youth in foster care. The goal of the permanency plan is to expeditiously secure a safe, permanent placement for every maltreated child, either by making it possible for children to return to their own families or by finding safe adoptive homes for them.
Petition: A document filed in juvenile court alleging that a juvenile is a delinquent and asking that the court assume jurisdiction over the juvenile or asking that an alleged delinquent be waived to criminal court for prosecution as an adult.
Petitioned (formally handled) cases: Cases that appear on the official court calendar in response to the filing of a petition or other legal instrument requesting the court to adjudicate the youth delinquent, or waive the youth to criminal court for processing as an adult.
Post-disposition: The period following the imposition of a sanction ordered or treatment plan decided upon or initiated in a particular case by a juvenile court.
Pre-disposition: The period after the filing of a charge and prior to a sanction ordered or treatment plan decided upon or initiated in a particular case by a juvenile court.
Prevention: Efforts that support youth who are "at-risk" of becoming involved in delinquent behavior and help prevent a juvenile from entering the juvenile justice system as a delinquent. Prevention includes arbitration, diversionary or mediation programs, and community service work or other treatment available subsequent to a child committing a delinquent act.
Probation: Cases in which youth are placed on informal/voluntary or formal/court-ordered supervision. A violation occurs when a youth violates the terms of the probation.
Problem-solving skills: The ability to recognize a problem and identify a practicable solution (e.g., alternative solution thinking, consequential thinking).
Program: A specific activity or project funded at the subgrantee or State level with Formula Grant funds.
Relative Rate Index (RRI): The RRI measures the level of disproportionate minority contact in a system by comparing the percentage of minority youth at each stage of the juvenile justice system to the percentage of minorities at the previous stage.
Reoffend: A measure of recidivism that counts the number of youth who were rearrested or seen at juvenile court (intake) for a new delinquent offense. While there is no commonly accepted measure of recidivism, it is generally measured at one of four access points in the juvenile justice process: arrest, intake, adjudication, or incarceration. This measure of reoffending applies to youth at either of the first two access points. Both of these measures have many advantages, but each also has disadvantages. An arrest may identify youth who were later released by the police, the charges dismissed by the courts, or who were found not guilty at adjudication hearings. On the other hand, an intake can over-represent the number of youth brought before the court more so than arrest because cases can be referred to court intake by a number of sources besides law enforcement agencies. Nevertheless, arrest and intake are used here in order to provide flexibility to the user.
Residential placement: Cases in which youth are placed in a residential correctional or treatment facility, or cases in which youth are otherwise removed from their homes and housed out of home. Residential placements can include secure confinement, residential treatment facilities, nonsecure confinement, group homes, foster care, shelter care, etc.
Restitution: In its traditional sense, restitution has been defined as “a monetary payment by the offender to the victim for the harm reasonably resulting from the offense.”
Reunification: The return of a child who was placed in out of home care (i.e., foster care) by the State to the birth parents or to the original custodian from whom the child was taken.
Running away: Leaving the custody and home of parents or guardians without permission and failing to return within a reasonable length of time.
Rural area: An area located outside a metropolitan statistical area as designated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Secure corrections: Correctional facilities to which youths who have been adjudicated delinquent are committed for periods generally ranging from a few months to several years. Secure correctional facilities are more likely to provide an array of treatment interventions designed to effect behavioral change.
Service: Activities identified by a program through formal consultation with program staff designed to provide accountability, public safety, competency enhancement, reparation to victims and/or therapeutic treatment. Examples include: community service, restitution, counseling sessions, probation visits, and course curriculum.
Self-control: The ability to pause and evaluate a situation and the consequences that may result from one's behavior (i.e., exercise restraint) rather than rely on instinct or impulse.
Sexual abuse: The involvement of a child in sexual activity to provide sexual gratification or financial benefit to the perpetrator, including contact for sexual purposes, prostitution, pornography, or other sexually exploitative activity (not necessarily resulting in a court finding).
Sexual misconduct: A comprehensive term used to identify various types of sexual violation, including sexual abuse, rape or sexual assault, sexual harassment, or other inappropriate sexual contact.
Screening: A process designed to determine if informal or formal processing is warranted. In the mental health setting, screening refers to an initial look at a juvenile's mental health needs. This is contrasted with an assessment to diagnose a mental health disorder, which would occur after screening. (Also see definition of Assessment.)
Self-esteem: Perceiving oneself as worthy of esteem or respect.
Shelter care: A detention alternative that offers residential care for youths who need short-term placement (i.e., for 1 to 30 days) outside the home. Shelter care is used for juveniles who require more intensive supervision than that provided by nonresidential options and for youths who must be detained because no parent or family member is available. Facilities are staff secure or nonsecure. Staff monitor youths 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and provide a full schedule of structured educational and recreational activities.
Sight and sound separation: A JJDP Act core protection that prohibits juveniles who are alleged to be found to be delinquent (including status offenders and non-offenders) from being detained or confined in any institution in which they might have contact with incarcerated adults.
Social competence: The ability to achieve personal goals in social interaction while simultaneously maintaining positive relationships with others over time and across situations.
Specialized foster care: An adult-mediated treatment model that recruits and trains families to offer placement and treatment for youth with a history of chronic and severe delinquency. Usually, youths are closely supervised at home, in the community, and at school. Foster care parents provide one-on-one mentoring and consistent discipline for rule violations.
State Advisory Group (SAG): A group of individuals including professionals in juvenile justice and related fields who serve as volunteers to monitor and supervise the funding and programming of Formula Grants made to the States by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. SAGs must be composed of 15 to 33 members appointed by the governor. One-fifth of the members must be younger than 24 years old when appointed. Three members must have been or must be currently under the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system. In addition, a majority of the members (including the chairperson) must not be full-time government employees.
Status offender: A juvenile charged with, or adjudicated for, conduct that would not, under the law of the jurisdiction in which the offense was committed, be a crime if committed by an adult. Status offenses include truancy, curfew violations, incorrigibility, running away, and underage possession and/or consumption of alcohol or tobacco.
Substance use and abuse: Use and abuse of substances including, but not limited to, illegal drugs (e.g., heroin), prescription and nonprescription drugs, and alcohol. Sometimes referred to as alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and abuse.
Supervision (youth supervision): Mechanisms for managing or overseeing the performance or activities of a person or group. In the context of juvenile justice, examples of supervision include probation, youth supervision orders, youth training centers, and parole orders.
Supervision meeting: A meeting between a youth and the person designated by the juvenile justice system to supervise that youth for the purpose of monitoring the youth's progress towards fulfilling their justice requirements. Supervisors can include probation and parole officers, judges, and case managers, among others.
System change: Strategies that alter the basic procedures, policies, and rules that define how local or State-level juvenile justice systems operate. These strategies create wide-ranging and long-lasting modifications in policies, procedures, or laws.
Targeted behavior: Any behavior-related problems (e.g., aggression, substance abuse) that a program is designed to modify through appropriate interventions.
Three-year plan: A document detailing a 3-year juvenile justice and delinquency prevention plan that States submit to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in order to receive Formula Grant funds.
Title V: Title V of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act of 1974, as amended (42 U.S.C. 5601et seq.) and reauthorized in 2002, established the Incentive Grants for Local Delinquency Prevention Programs. OJJDP administers Title V funding, which is dedicated to delinquency prevention efforts initiated by a community-based planning process focused on reducing risks and enhancing protective factors to prevent youth from entering the juvenile justice system. It is the only Federal funding source solely dedicated to delinquency prevention.
Truancy: Violation of a compulsory school attendance law.
Ungovernable: Being beyond the control of parents, guardians, or custodians, or being disobedient of parental authority. This classification is referred to in various juvenile codes as unruly, unmanageable, and incorrigible. Although it is not appropriate to charge with incorrigibility every youth who fails to heed a parent's requests, it is appropriate to do so when continued disobedience could harm the youth or another person.
Utilization rate: Used to examine the usage of a specific facility relative to its stated capacity. The utilization rate for a residential facility is calculated by summing the length of stay of all juveniles placed in the facility during the time period and dividing that figure by facility capacity (i.e., the number of beds multiplied by the number of days in a specified time period). If the facility is overcrowded, the utilization rate will be over 100 percent.
Valid court order: An order given by a juvenile court judge to a juvenile who was brought before the court and made subject to an order; and who received, before the issuance of such order, the full due process rights guaranteed to such juvenile by the Constitution of the United States.
Waived to criminal court: Cases transferred to criminal court as the result of a judicial waiver hearing in juvenile court.
Youth advocacy: Activities focused on improving services for and protecting the rights of youth affected by the juvenile justice system.