Motivational Interviewing (with a Criminal Justice Focus) Annotated Bibliography.
https://nicic.gov/motivational-interviewing-criminal-justice-focus-annotated-bibliography
Thinking for a Change 4.0.
https://nicic.gov/thinking-change-40
Tools of the Trade: A Guide to Incorporating Science into Practice.
https://nicic.gov/ttgisp
A Trauma Primer for Juvenile Probation and Juvenile Detention Staff
Published by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, this brief presents definitions of key concepts, overviews how children respond to trauma, and offers tips for juvenile probation and detention staff seeking to be more trauma-informed in their work.
https://www.ncjfcj.org/publications/a-trauma-primer-for-juvenile-probation-and-juvenile-detention-staff/(link is external)
The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction
National Institute of Mental Health.
This is a fact sheet from NIMH on teenage brain development.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-teen-brain-still-under-construction/index.shtml (link is external)
Behavior Management of Justice-Involved Individuals: Contemporary Research and State-of-the-Art Policy and Practice.
Authors: Madeline M. Carter and Center for Effective Public Policy
There remains an endless “revolving door” of individuals who are placed on community supervision, engage in further problematic behavior, and return to correctional facilities to likely repeat the cycle again. This paper provides a policy and practice framework to support the development of effective behavior management systems that will increase the compliance and prosocial behavior of justice-involved individuals both during and following their community supervision. [Abstract from Introduction]
https://nicic.gov/bmjiicrsap
Case Study: How Joe was Affected by His Officer
Community corrections officers can have a significant influence on outcomes by the ways in which they interact with individuals on supervision. Much of the leading training models teach officers the proper skillset using cognitive-behavioral techniques that, when used properly, encourage both short- and long-term prosocial change among individuals under supervision. Here is one case study that explains this process in practice. Note the terms that are highlighted as references to this and other learning domains on this website.
Joe is a 32-year-old, white man who lives in a rural part of Arizona. A couple of years ago, after losing his manufacturing job, he started using various pain killers on a regular basis, coupled with his continued alcohol use. He started stealing from friends and family members. Eventually, he was arrested on theft and drug charges and placed on probation for a period of two years. That’s when he first met Cliff, his probation officer. In their first couple of meetings together, Cliff laid out exactly what Joe had to do in order to get off probation: abide by his terms, attend drug treatment, and maintain employment, among others. At first, Joe didn’t like of any of what Cliff had explained to him. He didn’t think he needed treatment at all; he just got caught up with life by losing his job. He thought he could get back on his feet in no time. After a few months of being on probation, Joe kept using drugs, had a positive drug screen, and missed one treatment session. Cliff immediately addressed this with Joe in a constructive manner. Joe was expecting Cliff to berate him about his violations and possibly throw him in jail. However, Cliff gave Joe an opportunity to provide his side of the story of what’s going on in his life. Through that interaction, Joe realized that maybe he did need some help; much more than he realized before. Over the next several meetings with Cliff, which seem to generally be about 30 minutes each time, Joe actually began look forward to talking with Cliff. They talked about his progress, his problem areas, and ways that he still needed help. In Joe’s mind, Cliff was always firm, consistent, and always held him accountable, but he was also supportive and compassionate. After about six months, Joe became sober and found a good job that paid the bills and kept him out of trouble. What Joe didn’t know about Cliff is that he was trained in a particular program that provided him with the skills to enhance the quality of his interactions with probationers and encourage positive behavioral changes among probationers. It certainly seemed to be working, because Joe was on his path to becoming a changed man…in a good way.
The Science of Adolescent Risk-Taking: Workshop Report
The workshop discussions of biobehavioral and psychological perspectives on adolescent risk behavior alluded repeatedly to the importance of the cultural and social contexts in which young people develop. Presenters described research on the ways family, peers, schools, communities, and media and technology influence adolescent behavior and risk-taking.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53409/(link is external)
The Potential of Community Corrections to Improve Safety and Reduce Incarceration
Authors: Peggy McGarry, Alison Shames, Allon Yaroni, Karin Tamis, Ram Subramanian, Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Leon Digard, Ruth Delaney and Sara Sullivan
As the size and cost of jails and prisons have grown, so too has the awareness that public investment in incarceration has not yielded the expected return in public safety. This creates an opportunity to reexamine the wisdom of our reliance on institutional corrections—incarceration in prisons or jails—and to reconsider the role of community-based corrections, which encompasses probation, parole, and pretrial supervision. However, it could also be an opportunity wasted if care is not taken to bolster the existing capacity of community corrections. With this report, Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections provides an overview of the state of community corrections, the transformational practices emerging in the field (including those in need of further research), and recommendations to policymakers on realizing the full value of community supervision to taxpayers and communities.
https://www.vera.org/publications/the-potential-of-community-corrections-to-improve-safety-and-reduce-incarceration-configure(link is external)
Risk Factors for Delinquency: An Overview
Authors: Michael Shader
Researchers in the field of juvenile justice have long been interested in understanding the factors that may lead a juvenile to engage in delinquent behavior. Prevention strategies in the field of juvenile justice have recently adopted a public health approach to combating delinquency, targeting risk factors for delinquency. The article defines risk factors and examines some of the major risk factors linked to juvenile delinquency and violence. Risk factors are defined as characteristics or variables that, if present in any given youth, increase the chance that they will engage in delinquent behavior. Risk factors for delinquency fall into three broad categories: individual, social, and community. Individual factors include psychological, behavioral, and mental characteristics; social factors include family and peer influences; and community factors include school and neighborhood characteristics. By studying these risk factors, researchers and practitioners are able to enhance prevention programs by targeting the very factors or characteristics that are known to lead to delinquency. This public health strategy offers a promising approach to the prevention of juvenile delinquency in at-risk youth.
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=207540(link is external)
Tools of the trade: A guide to incorporating science into practice. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections (2004)
Authors: F.S. Taxman, E.S. Shepardson & J. M. Byrne
The application of evidence-based research findings to the practice of offender supervision is explained. Sections of this manual include introduction -- supervision as a behavioral management process to reduce recidivism; behavior and change; assessment and planning; communication tools; information tools; incentives to shape offender behavior; service tools; offender types; and guiding principles.
http://nicic.gov/ttgisp
Bourgon, G., Gutierrez, L., & Ashton, J. (2012). The evolution of community supervision practice: The transformation from case manager to change agent. The Journal of the American Probation and Parole Association: Perspectives, 36(3), 64-81.
Gifford-Smith, Mary, Kenneth A Dodge, Thomas J. Dishion, and Joan McCord. “Peer Influence in Children and Adolescents: Crossing the Bridge from Developmental to Intervention Science,” Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 33, no. 3 (2005): 255–265.
Considerable evidence supports the hypothesis that peer relationships influence the growth of problem behavior in youth. Developmental research consistently documents the high levels of covariation between peer and youth deviance, even controlling for selection effects. Ironically, the most common public interventions for deviant youth involve segregation from mainstream peers and aggregation into settings with other deviant youth. Developmental research on peer influence suggests that desired positive effects of group interventions in education, mental health, juvenile justice, and community programming may be offset by deviant peer influences in these settings. Given the public health policy issues raised by these findings, there is a need to better understand the conditions under which these peer contagion effects are most pronounced with respect to intervention foci and context, the child's developmental level, and specific strategies for managing youth behavior in groups.
Green, Amy E., et al. "Predicting Delinquency in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: A Longitudinal Analysis of Early Risk Factors." Youth Violence & Juvenile Justice 6, no. 4.
This study examined the ability of early risk factors to predict delinquency referrals. Significant risk factors included externalizing behaviors, prenatal smoking, parent marital status, and mother's education. Students with three or more risk factors had eight times the number of delinquency referrals than those with no identified risk factors.
Taxman, Faye. “Reentry and Supervision: One is Impossible Without the Other,” Corrections Today, April 2007, 69, 2: 98-101,105.
The article focuses on the use of the supervision process to help an offender become a productive citizen. It cites the similarities between case management and supervision. It details the model of supervision that is focused on facilitating offender change. It mentions the selection criteria that have been used for the Proactive Community Supervision (PCS) project.