This article explores the landscape of Youth Diversion Initiatives within the United States criminal justice system, offering a comprehensive examination of their evolution, types, effectiveness, and implementation strategies. The introduction delves into the historical context of juvenile justice, highlighting the imperative for alternative approaches to traditional punitive measures. The subsequent sections delve into three primary
The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2) is a brief, self-report screening tool designed to identify youths with special mental health needs in the juvenile justice system. It is not a diagnostic tool. Instead, it identifies emergent risks of youths in need of a comprehensive psychological assessment. The developers of the MAYSI-2 designed it for
Organized youth sport became popular in the 1920s (in the United Kingdom, at least) in part based on the idea that sport could help to produce well-grounded, physically strong, morally sound boys who would be successful contributors to society, particularly in the military and business worlds. In contemporary societies, there are competing reasons for promoting
Too often, young people are considered suspicious for no reason other than their age. Instead of recognizing their creativity, excitement, energy, and skills, adults tend to underestimate children and teens. Young people have powerful voices, however, and throughout history have often taken the lead in making social change. Students have helped change school policies and
In 1995, the National Youth Gang Center conducted its first assessment of the national gang problem. The numbers produced by that assessment were larger than those of any prior one-year survey, finding a total of 23,388 youth gangs. A total of 664,906 gang members were reported by 1,499 agencies. Gangs in the new millennium have
Gangs and the response to gangs by other segments of society are two sides of the same coin. Frederic Thrasher (1927, 26, 46), who studied 1,313 gangs in Chicago in the early 1900s, wrote that gangs are “formed spontaneously” but become “integrated through conflict.” For Thrasher, a pre-gang group does not “become a gang .
During the past two decades, research and criminal justice practitioner communities have turned increasing attention toward youth gangs. This attention is exhibited by the increases in funding for gang research, the creation of research institutes focused on gang activity, the development of specialized gang units in the law enforcement agencies, and the enactment of legislation
The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument (MAYSI) was developed in the 1990s by Thomas Grisso and Richard Barnum at the University of Massachusetts Medical School with grants from the William T. Grant Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. It was designed to be used within the juvenile justice system to identify youths experiencing thoughts, feelings, or behaviors
The Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory 2.0 (YLS/CMI 2.0) is a standardized instrument designed to help professionals assess risk and treatment needs in juvenile offenders. The instrument is primarily used to assist in developing intervention and treatment plans in probation and custody settings, but it is also useful in making decisions regarding pretrial diversion
Youth is defined for the purposes of this discussion as youngsters between 6 and 18 years. Sport means all sport activities practiced outside the physical education curriculum. Consequently, school sport as extracurricular activity is also included. With the start of the Sport for All movement in the 1960s and 1970s, this period can be characterized