Teen Courts: Focus on Research (NCJ 183472) October 2000 Bulletin 16 page(s) Butts, J. A., Buck, J. Presents the results of a national survey of teen courts that was conducted as part of OJJDP's Evaluation of Teen Courts Project by researchers at The Urban Institute. Developed as an alternative to the traditional juvenile court system for younger and less serious offenders, teen courts operate on the premise that the judgment of a juvenile offender's peers may have a greater impact than the decisions of adult authority figures. The teen court concept has gained popularity in recent years as juvenile courts have had to deal with increased numbers of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. The OJJDP Bulletin examines several teen court evaluations, but cautions that we lack the empirical data needed to fully evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention. PDF HTML