Division of Criminal Justice Services

Effective Practices


There are many promising practices across New York State and the country that have been shown to improve juvenile justice outcomes.   Many “evidence-based” programs have been rigorously tested and produced marked reductions in recidivism rates among youth who have engaged in delinquent behavior.  In addition, many structural reforms, such as the use of objective screening instruments and structured decision making tools, have driven reductions in the use of costly and ineffective institutional placements.  The juvenile arrest rates in jurisdictions with these promising practices have not seen increases that resulted from such reforms and many localities have actually experienced concurrent reductions in juvenile crime and overall juvenile justice system usage.

Some of these effective practices were summarized in the most recent JJAG report, Tough on Crime, Promoting Public Safety by Doing What Works.  That section of the report can be accessed here.

In addition, there are many resources that dig more deeply into the details of and experience in implementing promising practices.  Some of those resources include:

Models for Change: http://www.modelsforchange.net/index.html

Blueprint for Violence Prevention: http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints/index.html

Office of Justice Programs Crime Solutions.gov:  http://crimesolutions.gov/default.aspx

OJJDP Model Programs Guide: http://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg

Washington State Institute for Public Policy: http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/

Annie E. Casey Foundation, Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative: http://www.jdaihelpdesk.org/