Includes 6 contextual measures that describe the changing population and family context in which children live and 23 indicators of well-being in the areas of economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education. Presents this information in the third annual report produced through a collaborative effort by 18 Federal agencies.

Describes 6 contextual measures of the changing population and family context in which children live and 23 indicators of well-being in the areas of economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education. Presents a special feature on children who have difficulty performing everyday activities.

Recommends how to fulfill the prosecutor-specific JAIBG program purpose area 5—enabling prosecutors to address drug, gang, and youth violence. Offers data on recent trends in juvenile violence, drug offenses, and gang-related offending and possible prosecutorial responses to such offenses. Presents examples of promising prosecutor-led programs.

Recommends how to fulfill the prosecutor-specific JAIBG purpose areas 4 (hiring additional prosecutors) and 6 (acquiring technology, equipment, and training to assist prosecutors). Asserts that a prosecutor should not only enforce the law but care for the community and that success can only be achieved through coordinated prevention and intervention efforts.

Analyzes patterns in the arrest, judicial management, and correctional placement of female offenders. Contains tables and figures that show the changing profile of female delinquency between 1983 and 1993.

Presents a logical decision model to guide the screening decisions of individuals and organizations that hire employees or recruit volunteers to work with and provide care to children, the elderly, or the disabled. Describes a three-step approach that leads employers and volunteer organizations through a thoughtful process of evaluating the circumstances and establishing appropriate screening measures for each care provider.

Describes the Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants (JAIBG) program and provides advice and recommendations to States and local units of government eligible to receive JAIBG funds. Identifies the 12 program purpose areas that JAIBG funds may be used to develop, lists program implementation activities, explains the role of juvenile crime enforcement coalitions in securing grants, and discusses principles for ensuring accountability in juvenile justice systems.

Reviews developments in the juvenile justice system structure and process from the establishment of the Nation's first juvenile court in 1899 to the present. Discusses Supreme Court decisions that have shaped the modern system, compares juvenile and adult justice systems, describes current case processing, and summarizes changes States have made with regard to juvenile court jurisdictional authority, sentencing, and confidentiality.

Describes OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC) and the many services it provides to juvenile justice professionals and practitioners. Presents information on the following services that JJC offers: the latest research findings, descriptions of promising programs, publications on youth-related issues, practical guides and manuals, announcements of funding opportunities, and other useful resources—all prepared by the Nation's foremost experts in juvenile justice and related issues.

Features summaries of OJJDP-funded research on conditions of confinement and parentally abducted children and an interview with a juvenile court judge on the challenges currently facing the Nation's juvenile justice system.

Highlights an interview with Attorney General Janet Reno on a national agenda for children. Also includes articles on approaches to dealing with delinquency, total quality management, and the Gould-Wysinger Awards.

Provides a summary of initial findings from OJJDP's longitudinal study on the causes and correlates of delinquency. Also includes articles on disproportionate minority representation in the juvenile justice system and permanency planning for children in foster care.

Offers a retrospective look at the creation and development of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act of 1974. Features a review of progress made in the deinstitutionalization of status offenders, one of the JJDP Act's core requirements.

Features a description of the balanced and restorative justice model as a promising new approach to juvenile justice and an overview of the use of satellite teleconferencing to deliver training and information to a diverse audience. Also includes an article on the Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Programs initiative.

Features an article that addresses the problem of increasing gun ownership and use by juveniles and offers promising steps to curb juvenile violence, particularly gun violence. Includes an article that discusses the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's eight objectives for reducing youth violence and delinquency.

This special issue of Juvenile Justice describes the proceedings of OJJDP's 1996 national conference, "Juvenile Justice At The Crossroads." Focuses on the challenges of preventing delinquency, strengthening the juvenile justice system, and meeting the needs of today's youth while planning for the youth of tomorrow.

Features an interview with former OJJDP Administrator Shay Bilchik in which he shares insights on the juvenile justice system and where it should be going from his perspective as a juvenile justice practitioner for 20 years. Also includes an article on the relationship between youth gang involvement in drug trafficking and homicide, which suggests constructive steps toward the solution—support for promising strategies and proven programs that are already at work.

Highlights an interview that elicits insights on key missing children issues. Also includes an article that further elaborates on enhancing the system's response when children are missing. A third article describes how the "virtual world" of cyberspace can also pose risks to children and helps parents protect their children from cyberpredators.

Presents three feature articles, each exploring issues related to girls in the juvenile justice system. Describes, in the first article, how addressing the needs of girls is paramount to halting the intergenerational cycle of family fragmentation and crime. Looks at the Female Intervention Team, whose mission is to restore hope to young women who have lost their direction and focus and who lack goals, in the second article. Discusses the National Girls' Caucus, which was formed to ensure equitable treatment for girls in the juvenile justice system, in the third article.

Explores mental health issues in the juvenile justice system. Includes three articles discussing (1) the increased attention recently accorded the mental health needs of youth in the juvenile justice system; (2) Wraparound Milwaukee, a program that has successfully integrated a broad array of services to better respond to the needs of adjudicated delinquent youth with mental health problems; and (3) constructive recommendations for preventing suicide and for providing mental health services in juvenile facilities.

Identifies and analyzes issues and trends associated with State juvenile reform initiatives. Provides information to policymakers on the mechanisms that States are using to respond to increased youth violence and delinquency. Explores some of the more punitive measures, such as new criminal court transfer authority and expanded juvenile court sentencing options.

Describes how to build a juvenile justice system for the 21st century that protects communities and ensures that all youth become productive, contributing adults. Discusses the objectives and elements of an effective juvenile justice system and suggests legislative and administrative strategies for its implementation. Specific tools, including offender risk and needs assessment instruments, are offered that can be used to improve the operation of the juvenile justice system.

Provides updated information and statistics on juvenile crime, violence, and victimization, extrapolating 1995 data from various reports. Presents complex information on juvenile crime using clear, nontechnical writing and easy-to-understand graphics and tables. This Summary is an addendum to the 1995 report Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report. Copies of Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on Violence are also available.

Provides information and statistics on crime, violence, and victimization committed by and against juveniles, extrapolating 1992 data from various reports. Presents complex information on juvenile crime using clear, nontechnical writing and easy-to-understand graphics and tables. This Summary is an addendum to the 1995 Report Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report.

Synthesizes the most comprehensive information available on juvenile crime, violence, and victimization and the juvenile justice system. Provides the baseline for analyzing trends in the growth of the juvenile population; the rates of juvenile arrests, homicides, suicides, maltreatment, and violent crime victimizations; and the justice system's response to juvenile crime.

Focuses on the disproportionate confinement of minorities in the juvenile justice system in comparison with the general population. Provides statistics on the racial-ethnic makeup of juvenile offenders from arrest, court-processing, and confinement records. Notes that racial-ethnic differences can occur at all stages of juvenile case processing.

Reviews OJJDP's fiscal year 1996 and 1997 activities, programs, and publications—many of which use the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders as their framework. Also includes discussions on information-sharing efforts, the Missing and Exploited Children's Program, and State and local assistance grants programs.

Summarizes key initiatives in research, evaluation, and statistics undertaken by OJJDP's Research and Program Development Division. Reviews critical findings on the root causes of juvenile delinquency and negative behavior, highlights some of OJJDP's innovative research efforts, and explores emerging research on very young offenders, school violence, and girls in the juvenile justice system.

Discusses racial and ethnic differences in the rates of serious and violent offending among juveniles. Describes various data sources (justice system records and self-report offending and victimization surveys) and notes their strengths and weaknesses for purposes of identifying racial or ethnic patterns. Summarizes statistics on national trends in juvenile offending by race or ethnicity, discusses research findings on racial or ethnic differences among chronic offenders, and offers various explanations of the patterns observed.

Provides basic information on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for elementary and secondary education professionals and those involved in the delivery of services to juveniles, including students involved in the juvenile justice system. Provides an overview of FERPA, discusses the Act's restrictions on information sharing, explains recordkeeping requirements under the Act, and summarizes recent changes to the regulations for implementing FERPA.

Describes the criteria for Challenge Grant eligibility and delineates the 10 Challenge Activities set forth in the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. Provides a graph and table that illustrate the nature of each State's selected Challenge Activities for FY 1995.

Presents an overview of Native American and Alaska Native juvenile justice systems, including a historical overview, analysis of offenses and tribal responses, program resources, and promising approaches.

Describes pervasive problems in the juvenile justice system and Congress's response to these problems when it created the State Challenge Activities Program in 1992. Provides an overview of the 10 State Challenge Activity areas, describes the characteristics of systems change, and identifies approaches used by States to effect systems change. Also describes and gives examples of 11 themes of systems change efforts that emerged from a study of materials submitted to OJJDP in spring 1998 by 24 States and 1 territory concerning their State Challenge activities.

Provides videotaped proceedings of a 1999 teleconference. Discusses gender-specific services that address the unique needs of at-risk girls and female juvenile offenders. Provides a forum for issues concerning female offenders in the juvenile justice system, examines various approaches and promising program models for girls, and identifies available resource material that supports gender-specific programming.

Reviews workload measurement methods and related issues for juvenile court judges, court-appointed defenders, probation officers, and pretrial services employees. Describes the weighted caseload, Delphi, and normative methods of measuring judicial workloads and provides examples of applications and results for each method.