Adolescence is a distinct, yet transient, period of development between childhood and adulthood characterized by increased experimentation and risk-taking, a tendency to discount long-term consequences, and heightened sensitivity to peers and other social influences. A key function of adolescence is developing an integrated sense of self, including individualization, separation from parents, and personal identity. Experimentation and novelty-seeking behavior, such as alcohol and drug use, unsafe sex, and reckless driving, are thought to serve a number of adaptive functions despite their risks. Research indicates that for most youth, the period of risky experimentation does not extend beyond adolescence, ceasing as identity becomes settled with maturity. Much adolescent involvement in criminal activity is part of the normal developmental process of identity formation and most adolescents will mature out of these tendencies. Evidence of significant changes in brain structure and function during adolescence strongly suggests that these cognitive tendencies characteristic of adolescents are associated with biological immaturity of the brain and with an imbalance among developing brain systems. This imbalance model implies dual systems: one involved in cognitive and behavioral control and one involved in socio-emotional processes. Accordingly adolescents lack mature capacity for self-regulations because the brain system that influences pleasure-seeking and emotional reactivity develops more rapidly than the brain system that supports self-control. This knowledge of adolescent development has underscored important differences between adults and adolescents with direct bearing on the design and operation of the justice system, raising doubts about the core assumptions driving the criminalization of juvenile justice policy in the late decades of the 20th century. It was in this context that the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) asked the National Research Council to convene a committee to conduct a study of juvenile justice reform. The goal of Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach was to review recent advances in behavioral and neuroscience research and draw out the implications of this knowledge for juvenile justice reform, to assess the new generation of reform activities occurring in the United States, and to assess the performance of OJJDP in carrying out its statutory mission as well as its potential role in supporting scientifically based reform efforts.

Aimed at parents of and advocates for special needs children, explains how to develop a relationship with a school, monitor a child's progress, understand relevant legislation, and document correspondence and conversations.

Juvenile crime and violence has always piqued the public's interest. Indeed, each generation of Americans tends to define the youth crime problem as more serious than any previous generation. Even though juvenile homicides have been decreasing since the mid-1990s, the media is still quick to provide dramatic examples of juvenile monsters who are terrorizing their communities. Shootings at school, gang banging and trafficking drugs, school bullies, and charging juveniles as adults are subjects that have recently received wide media coverage. This three volume set on the nature, incidence, consequences, and treatment of youth crime and violence will help readers understand the true nature of youth crime and violence from a variety of perspectives. Each volume covers a different area and experts write on topics ranging from sex offending to fire starting, from gangs to guns, from juvenile probation to charging youths as adults, from mandatory mental health treatment to police in school settings, and more. What drives a teenager to steal? To kill? Why does youth crime and violence occur? Why are youths such vulnerable targets? What can be done to stop youth offenders, and what can be done to help youthful victims? How does the criminal justice system respond? What do communities do to punish and protect youths? What can schools do to intervene? All these questions and more are answered in this set on this timely and important topic. Our youth are our most precious commodity, and protecting vulnerable children as well as helping offenders is of paramount importance for steering them toward safe and productive lives. These volumes help readers better understand the causes and consequences of youth violence and crime and consider ways to address the problems.

Evaluates the emerging status of key policies & programs that affect children & youth with disabil. who have been overlooked by service & research programs. Children & youth with disabil. have become over-represented in the juvenile justice (JJ) system. Delinquency prevention is a critical feature of any service or support system that is used to address the needs of all youth, esp. youth with disabil. & special educ. needs. Contents: Current Laws & Philosophical Frameworks; Disability, Delinquency, & JJ; Risk & Protective Factors Assoc. with Delinquency; Program & Policy Trends; Promising Practices & Criteria/Measures of Effective.; Implementation of Disabil. Law & Programs; Recommend. for Next StepsÓ; & Conclusion. Charts & tables.