LibGuides: Juvenile Law Best Practices: Looking at the Evidence Base: Reviews & Clearinghouses

Introduction

The best approach for your search depends on your information need. When you are trying to determine what the most effective approach or intervention is in a given situation, it can be efficient to start by looking at review articles or evidence-based clearinghouses, since someone else has already done some of the work for you in reviewing the available research or assessing specific programs.

Clearinghouses

The following sources describe and assess different programs and interventions. Note that these sources are provided by a variety of entities, including governmental agencies and advocacy groups, and that the manner in which they rate programs differs markedly.

Benefit-Cost Results
By legislative directive, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy identifies public policy alternatives with evidence supporting their effectiveness. The listings include links to program details, a meta-analysis of program effects, and citations to studies considered. Topical areas include juvenile justice, child welfare, children's mental health, and substance abuse (with sections for early intervention and treatment for youth).
Best Evidence Encyclopedia: Empowering Educators with Evidence on Proven Programs
This website from Johns Hopkins University School of Education's Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education provides access to rankings and reviews of evidence-based programs in the areas of mathematics, reading, early childhood education, and comprehensive school reform.
Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development
"Helps you match children's needs to cost-effective programs that have been proven to help them reach their full potential." Blueprints is a project of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado.
Campbell Collaboration Library of Systematic Reviews
Search peer-reviewed systematic reviews prepared by the Campbell Collaboration. Topics include education, crime and justice, and social welfare.
Centre for Reviews and Dissemination Database
Simultaneously search three databases of systematic reviews, economic evaluations, and other assessments. Although focused on health care, this collection of databases includes information on foster care, juvenile offenders, and other areas of possible interest. The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE) and the NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED) include information from 1994-March 2015. New content continues to be added to the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) database.
CrimeSolutions.gov
This service from the Office of Justice Programs "uses rigorous research to inform practitioners and policy makers about what works in criminal justice, juvenile justice, and crime victim services" and encourages justice practitioners to replicate programs with a proven record of success. To be included, programs are reviewed using an eight-step review and evidence rating process. Users can search for programs using a variety of criteria including topic, evidence rating, and target age group.
Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center
From the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Permits searching by topic area, substance or condition, resource type, target population, and target audience.
Finding Evidence-Based Programs and Practices
Provides a directory of evidence-based resources related to behavioral health, including youth-specific sources.
National Guideline Clearinghouse
From the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Includes current guidelines from around the world. Offers a variety of search options. Browse by topic to see education and social sciences guides. In addition to names of specific medical conditions (e.g., conduct disorder), search terms of possible interest include: substance misuse; alcohol use; child physical abuse; child and adolescent mental health.
OJJDP Model Programs Guide
The Model Programs Guide is a database of more than 200 evidence-based, scientifically-proven programs that address a range of issues including substance abuse, mental health, and education. It covers the entire continuum of youth services from prevention through sanctions to reentry and addresses topics including child victimization, substance abuse, youth violence, mental health and trauma, and gang activity.
Registries of Programs Effective in Reducing Youth Risk Behaviors
This CDC site includes information about substance abuse, juvenile justice, and violence.
Social Programs That Work
This site from the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy includes information on intervention programs that are "shown in well-designed and implemented randomized controlled trials, preferably conducted in typical community settings, to produce sizeable, sustained benefits to participants and/or society.”
Therapeutic Responses to Youth and Families
Includes the Adolescent-Based Treatment Database and the Adolescent-Based Treatment Intervention Comparison Matrix from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). You will have to log in to use after creating a free account. (Resources are under Juvenile Drug Treatment Court: Resource Library)
U.S. Department of Education: What Works Clearinghouse (WWC)
Allows you to search a database of systematic reviews examining educational interventions and publishes practice guides on a variety of topics.

Selected Publications

The following articles and reports consider best practices in a variety of areas related to juvenile law.

Disseminating Evidence-Based Practice for Children and Adolescents: A Systems Approach to Enhancing Care
2008. This report by the American Psychological Association Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice for Children and Adolescents primarily recommends how to integrate evidenced-based practices into psychological care of children and adolescents. The section "Overview of the Scientific Evidence" also reports research on prevention and treatment programs.
Evidence-Based Interventions for Juvenile Offenders and Juvenile Justice Policies that Support Them
2011. This scholarly "paper examines 'what works' and 'what doesn’t work' in reducing the criminal behavior of juvenile offenders and presents examples of government initiatives that have successfully promoted the adoption, implementation, and sustainability of evidence-based interventions for juvenile offenders.”
Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations for Juvenile Drug Courts
2009. "This guide provides a series of recommendations for juvenile drug courts along three critical areas—screening and assessment (Chapter 2), treatment (Chapter 3), and outcome monitoring (Chapter 4). The Recommendations emulate the characteristics of a “model” juvenile drug court, and reflect the goals of the Louisiana Supreme Court Drug Court Office that were developed as part of its Models for Change project."
Guidebook for Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare System Coordination and Integration: A Framework for Improved Outcomes
2013. The Child Welfare League of America and the Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corp. "developed this guidebook to help state and local jurisdictions determine how they might achieve useful integration and cooperation between their child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Direction in this guidebook is based on research, evidence-based practice, and the experiences of other jurisdictions."
Implementing Evidence-Based Juvenile Justice Reforms
2017. Discusses the implementation of the Juvenile Justice Reform and Reinvestment Initiative in three demonstration sites (Delaware, Iowa, and Wisconsin). It features a Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol tool that "gives local jurisdictions an evidence-based tool to rate services delivered to youth in the juvenile justice system based on their potential to reduce recidivism."
Implementing Evidence-Based Practice in Treatment Foster Care: A Resource Guide
2008. This Foster Family-Based Treatment Association publication "identifies specific [evidence-based] models, interventions, and tools that TFC [treatment foster care] providers can use to deliver effective services to the children, youth, and families in their care."
Enhanced Juvenile Justice Guidelines: Improving Court Practice in Juvenile Justice Cases
2018. The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges created a report in 2005 intending "to set forth the essential elements of effective practice for the court processes that are involved in the handling of juvenile delinquency cases." Experience and data informed the development of the guidelines. In 2017, the NCJFCJ revisited the Juvenile Delinquency Guidelines to ensure that it reflected the changes in court practice, advances in brain science, the understanding of adolescent development and the juvenile specific rulings from the Supreme Court.
Juvenile Diversion Guidebook
2011. This Models for Change Juvenile Diversion Workgroup guidebook recommends "steps jurisdictions should consider when planning, implementing, or improving a juvenile diversion program." Includes examples of programs and evidence of their success.
Juvenile Justice: Lessons for a New Era
2009. Discusses research on the "evaluation of juvenile rehabilitation and treatment programs, differences between adolescents and adults, prosecution of youth in adult criminal court, needs of girls, use of incarceration and improvement of conditions of juvenile confinement, and racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system." Recommends changes based on the evidence. From the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, vol. 26, p. 483-541.
Sourcebook of Delinquency Interventions
2011. Describes and assesses juvenile delinquency interventions. The assessments are based on a review of empirical research and rank the programs as evidence-based (highest rank), promising, or practice with demonstrated effectiveness. From the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
Statewide Implementation of Child and Family Evidence-Based Practices: Challenges and Promising Practices
2012. Provides tips for the successful state implementation of evidence based practices and examines how Connecticut and Ohio implemented specific practices.

Juvenile Law Best Practices: Looking at the Evidence Base: Reviews & Clearinghouses

Introduction

Clearinghouses

Selected Publications

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