Evaluation of the South Oxnard Challenge Project, 1997-2001

📖 The Scoop

Despite the overall decline in adult crime rates in the 1990s, crime experts have cautioned that youth crime was increasing at an alarming rate. Researchers and practitioners alike have noted the importance of focusing our anti-crime efforts on this youth population and on developing new and innovative approaches to the problem. In 1996 the California Legislature indicated their intent to reduce the rate of juvenile violent crime in the state by passing Senate Bill 1760 establishing Juvenile Crime Enforcement and Accountability Challenge Grants. The first "Challenge Grants" provided approximately 50 million dollars for 14 counties to develop comprehensive, multi-agency plans designed to provide a "continuum" of responses to juvenile delinquency. The Legislature asked that counties develop collaboration, integrated approaches to addressing youth crime and incorporate an evaluation component into the project design. Ventura County developed an innovative collaborative approach to reducing juvenile delinquency in South Oxnard based upon the principles of Clear's "Corrections of Place" theory. This restorative justice approach incorporates offenders, victims, and community residents in the administration of juvenile justice and in the healing of the community. The RAND Corporation and Dr. Joan Petersilia conducted the evaluation of the Ventura program using a randomized field experiment to document program outcomes for youth, their families, victims, and the local community. This publication is the final report of the program and evaluation. It describes the principles of Corrections of Place Theory made to accommodate the program; includes a description of changes in the local juvenile justice system; and describes program participants, as well as program implementation and youth outcomes during the program intervention period and beyond.

Genre: Law / Criminal Law / Juvenile Offenders (fancy, right?)