Criminal Justice System
Crossover Kids’: Vulnerable Children in the Youth Justice System. Report 2: Children at the Intersection of Child Protection and Youth Justice Across Victoria
Victoria State Government. Sentencing Advisory Council
Australia
2020
Cross-Over Youth: Navigating Quicksand
Judy Finlay, Brian Scully, Matthew-Eaton Kent, Tara-Rose Farrell, Peter Dicks, Jessica Salerno
Canada
2019
Best Practice Model for Child Welfare in Working with Cross-Over Youth. Navigating the System and Planning for Good Outcomes
Danielle Szandtner, Jessica Salerno, Karla Boyd, Karen Wisniewski, Matthew Eaton-Kent, Rachel Buhler, Rebecca Kingdon, Roger Dilworth, Sharon Evans, Thaila Dixon-Eeet, Yvonne Flamengo
Canada
2018
Cross-Over Youth: Care to Custody
Hon. Justice Brian Scully, Judy Finlay
2015
Main topic: 1) to gather information about the roles of the various stakeholders and participants in the lives of cross-over kids; 2) to develop a forward-looking set of recommendations to intervene in the patterns related to the cross-over trajectory; and 3) inform/educate the relevant service sectors about the unique issues related to cross-over youth.
From One System to Another. Crossover Children in Waterloo Region
Anthony Piscitelli, Kayla Follett
Canada
2012
The purpose of this report is to explore new interventions to support youth in the child welfare system and their families within Waterloo Region. The goal is to reduce the number of children that cross over from Family and Children Services to youth justice systems and to reduce the severity and number of delinquent activities (15).
Addressing the Needs of Multi-System Youth: Strengthening the Connection Between Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice
Denise Herz, Phillip Lee, Lorrie Lutz, Macon Stewart, John Tuell, Janet Wilg, Shay Bilchik, Edward Kelley
USA
2012
Health and Well-Being of Children in Care: Youth Justice Experiences and Outcomes
BC Representative for Children and Youth, BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer
British Columbia
2009
The Review of the Roots of Youth Violence
Roy McMurtry, Alvin Curling
Ontario
2008
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Street Justice: Homeless Youth and Access to Justice
Stephen Gaetz, Matthew Lynas, Christina Wayvon, Sandra Woodward, Susan Dabovic
Ontario
2002
Punitive Justice: When Race and Mental Illness Collide in the Early Stages of the Criminal Justice System
Marsha Rampersaud
Canada
2022
Youths in care are among the most vulnerable youths in our society. All youths in care have experienced trauma and sometimes exhibit trauma-induced behaviours which are perceived by others as disruptive or dangerous. The police are frequently called, which begins a cycle of criminalization for many youths, with racialized youths overrepresented in this group. Using an intersectional theoretical framework, this article shows how discriminatory perceptions of race and mental health influence justice system actors’ decision-making, from arrest to bail. Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with twenty-five young adults (ages 18 to 24) who have had contact with the child welfare and criminal justice systems and ten practicing lawyers in Ontario, the analysis reveals race-based differences in justice system actors’ responses to mental illness. Discriminatory views function as a lens through which racialized and mentally ill youths leaving care are perceived as threats and met with more punitive responses.
“Crossover Young Adults”: The Case for a Neurodevelopmentally-Aware, Trauma-Informed Approach to Sentencing Young Adults with Criminal Justice and Care and Protection Involvement
Sarah Watt
Australia
2022
“Crossover young adults”, that is, 18 to 25 year olds with criminal justice and care and protection involvement, are overlooked in research and policy. There is general acceptance that “crossover youth” up to 17 years with care and youth justice involvement are a complex group facing multiple challenges often rooted in childhood trauma. They are the most likely group to offend as adults. However, beyond the youth justice stage, limited attention is paid to the care-crime connection. Young adults in the criminal justice system more broadly are increasingly acknowledged as a distinct group given their developmental stage. Neuroscience shows that the human brain develops into the mid-twenties. Notably neuroscience also shows that childhood trauma disrupts development. Accordingly, considering crossover young adults from a purely age-related perspective leaves a gap in understanding.
The aim of this thesis is to draw upon neurodevelopmental and trauma research to critique the current approach to sentencing crossover young adults in Aotearoa New Zealand and to pave the way towards more effective, fair and just outcomes for this vulnerable group. Neuroscience shows childhood trauma can cause significant maladaptation, including reactive behaviours which amount to offending. Importantly, childhood trauma can be resolved through positive experiences and relationships. Young adulthood offers an “age of opportunity” for healing and intercepting the care to custody pipeline given heightened neuroplasticity and susceptibility to change. Sentencing for crossover young adults currently fails to reflect these insights. An offence-focused approach responds to behavioural manifestations of trauma rather than underlying causes. Acknowledgement of distinctions of crossover young adults is limited to deficit-based sentencing discounts.
By drawing on trauma-informed practice, a values-based approach for service delivery, this thesis provides four guiding principles and four proposals for neurodevelopmentally-aware, trauma-informed sentencing for crossover young adults. Sentencing must be grounded in an understanding of the prevalence of childhood trauma amongst crossover young adults and its neurodevelopmental impacts. Responses must be strengths-based and healing- focused, prioritising safety and connections. Education ought to support the necessary shift in perspective. At sentencing, rehabilitation must be prioritised, consideration of trauma must be mandated and imprisonment must be a measure of last resort.
To Protect or To Punish: Illuminating Pathways from Care to Criminalization
Marsha Rampersaud
Ontario
2021
This dissertation undertakes an in-depth analysis of the compounding effects of the child welfare and criminal justice systems on young adults (ages 18 to 24) in Ontario. The research is informed by qualitative, critical race methodologies, including semi-structured interviews with 25 young adults who have been involved in both systems; 10 practicing lawyers in Ontario; and 10 Youth- in-Transition Workers. The analysis and findings are presented in two academic papers and one public policy report.
The first manuscript uses an intersectional framework to uncover reasons why racialized children and youth are overrepresented in the child welfare and criminal justice systems; findings reveal race-based differences exist in the treatment of accused individuals who have been in care and experience mental illness in the early stages of the legal process, from arrest to bail. The second manuscript explores understandings of risk in bail courts and uncovers ways this concept functions as an organizing principal. This analysis illustrates how care status comes to be identified as a risk factor. Together these manuscripts demonstrate ways that risk-thinking fails to account for the particular conditions, circumstances, and contexts of youth leaving care, to youths’ disadvantage. The third manuscript is a public policy report that addresses gaps in public knowledge by synthesizing existing information about the adverse outcomes experienced by youth leaving care in five areas: education; employment, poverty, and income support; housing and homelessness; criminalization; and mental and physical health and wellbeing. Using this information, recommendations focus on ways to disrupt pathways from care to criminalization. As a complete work, this dissertation analyzes ways that race impacts the experiences of youth leaving care in the criminal justice system, examines understandings of risk in bail courts, and highlights pathways from care to criminalization.
How Do Childhood Conduct Problems, Callousness and Anxiety Relate to Later Offending and Adult Mental Disorder?
Jean-Marie Bamvita, Peter Larm, Frank Vitaro, Richard Tremblay, Gilles Cote, Sheilagh Hodgins
Quebec
2019
Background: Various combinations of childhood conduct problems, callous traits and anxiety may confer increased risk of offending, psychopathic traits and mental disorders. Knowledge of these outcomes in adulthood is limited.
Aims: To compare adult criminal convictions, psychopathy checklist scores and mental disorders between five groups of men, variously defined in childhood by: (1) callous traits, (2) conduct problems, (3) conduct problems and callous traits, (4) conduct problems and callous traits and anxiety or (5) developing typically.
Method: Teachers rated conduct problems, callous traits and anxiety at ages 6, 10 and 12 years. Criminal convictions from age 12 to 24 were extracted from official records. The Psychopathy Checklist‐Revised (PCL-R) and diagnostic in- terviews were completed at age 33.
Results: Relative to the typically developing group, the groups with conduct problems, with and without callous traits and anxiety, showed 5‐fold elevations in risks of vi- olent convictions and 3 to 4‐fold elevations in risk for antisocial personality disorder, while the groups with conduct problems only and with conduct problems plus callous traits plus anxiety were at increased risk for borderline personality disorder. All risk groups obtained higher PCL‐R total scores than the typically developing childhood group. Conclusions and implications: It is widely accepted that childhood conduct problems in boys are associated with increased risks of criminal convictions and poorer mental health, but our findings suggest that teachers can identify different subgroups and these have different trajectories. As some subgroups were small, replication is recom- mended, but our findings offer preliminary support for trialling specific interventions for at risk boys.
Examining the Needs of Crossover Youth: Individual and System Level Factors
Marcia A. Gordeyko
Canada
2017
Crossover youth are broadly defined as youth who have had contact with both the child welfare and youth justice systems. Although there has been increased research on crossover youth, including the numerous negative outcomes they experience (e.g., high rates of recidivism, multiple out-of-home placements; Herz, Ryan, Bilchik, 2010), much of this research has been based on data drawn from large child welfare and youth justice administrative databases. This approach may limit our understanding of crossover youth in other domains in which they also experience difficulties (e.g., mental health and substance use), as well as limit our understanding of these youth from a variety of perspectives (e.g., community service providers). Given that high rates of mental health and substance use difficulties are of concern for crossover youth (Turpel-Lafond Kendall, 2009), we need more specific information on their mental health needs, how these needs are met, and how service providers conceptualize the needs of crossover youth. To begin to address these questions, the two papers that make up my dissertation examined the mental health needs of crossover youth and service providers’ perspectives on those needs, respectively.
Leaving the Bank of Mum and Dad: Independence and Delinquency Destance in Emerging Adulthood
Jessica M. Hill, Victor R. van der Geest, Arjan A. J. Blokland
Netherlands
2017
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Purpose: Traditional markers of adulthood, such as marriage and parenthood, are being increasingly postponed by young adults in their 20s. Consequently, young people cite different criteria for achieving an adult status (Arnett in Youth and Society, 29:3–23). In this study, we focus on one of these, financial independence, examining how it relates to delinquency. We hypothesize that gaining financial independence, i.e., no longer receiving financial support from parents, will lead to a decrease in delinquent behavior but that other factors may play a moderating role in this.
Methods: Using longitudinal data from a general population sample of Dutch emerging adults, aged 18–24 years, fixed effects models were run examining the effect of within-person changes in financial independence on self-reported delinquent behavior.
Results: Using lagged models, we found that when participants were financially independent, they reported committing fewer delinquent offences in the subsequent 6-month period compared to when they were financially dependent. This effect was not moderated by individuals’ education or employment status or their living situation.
Conclusions: These results indicate that young people today desist from delinquency in response to gaining financial independence from parents. We discuss the role of financial independence as an important marker of adulthood.
Juvenile Incarceration, Human Capital, and Future Crime: Evidence from Randomly-Assigned Judges
Anna Aizer, Joseph J. Doyle, Jr.
USA
2015
Over 130,000 juveniles are detained in the United States each year with 70,000 in detention on any given day, yet little is known about whether such a penalty deters future crime or interrupts social and human capital formation in a way that increases the likelihood of later criminal behavior. This article uses the incarceration tendency of randomly assigned judges as an instrumental variable to estimate causal effects of juvenile incarceration on high school completion and adult recidivism. Estimates based on over 35,000 juvenile offenders over a 10-year period from a large urban county in the United States suggest that juvenile incarceration results in substantially lower high school completion rates and higher adult incarceration rates, including for violent crimes. In an attempt to understand the large effects, we found that incarceration for this population could be very disruptive, greatly reducing the likelihood of ever returning to school and, for those who do return, significantly increasing the likelihood of being classified as having an emotional or behavioral disorder.
Child Welfare Adolescents and the Youth Justice System: Failing to Respond Effectively to Crossover Youth
Nicholas Bala, Judy Finlay, Rebecca DeFelippis, Katie Hunter
Ontario
2015
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Adolescents under the supervision of the provincial child welfare agencies are overrepresented in the youth criminal justice system. There are currently no policies in Ontario or most other Canadian jurisdictions to specifically address the unique needs of these highly vulnerable “crossover youth.” This article reviews literature and reports on a study of interviews with 22 Ontario professionals. Recommendations are made for improving outcomes for these youth: (1) improve preventive interventions; (2) establish mentorship programs; (3) restrict charging of youth in child welfare group homes; (4) involve youth more in decision-making; (5) have one lawyer for a youth for both proceedings; (6) establish better integrated court processes; (7) improve collaboration between agencies and professionals; (8) increase advocacy by child welfare agencies; (9) improve case management; and (10) expand programs for youth aging out of care. Underlying these recommendations is the recognition of the need for an integrated, holistic approach for dealing with the challenging issues faced by these youth.
Extended Foster Care Support During the Transition to Adulthood: Effect on the Risk of Arrest
JoAnn S. Lee, Mark E. Courtney, Emiko Tajima
USA
2014
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Youth aging out of the foster care system are at high risk for adult arrests, but providing extended foster care support during the early years of their transition from adolescence to independent adulthood may reduce this risk. This study used survey data from the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (N = 732) matched with official arrest data to estimate the potential benefit of providing extended foster care support in reducing the risk of arrest in the early transition period. In addition, other factors related to the risk of arrest for these former foster youth were explored. Event history modeling techniques were used to estimate the impact of extended care on the risk of a first adult arrest. Models were estimated for men and women separately, and for all non-procedural arrests and violent arrests only. Extended care is associated with a lower risk of arrest in the first year, but appears to have a declining effect over time.
Closing the Crossover Gap: Amending Foster Connections to Provide Independent Living Services for Foster Youth who Crossover to the Justice System
Lauren Wylie
USA
2014
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In the last three decades, Congress has enacted a series of amendments to the Social Security Act to address the growing number of youth who “age out” of the foster care system. The most recent and, arguably, the most notable of these programs was The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (“Fostering Connections”). Fostering Connections provides funding for states to extend federally supported foster care services to youth beyond their eighteenth birthdays. The Act also requires state agencies to work with each emancipating youth to write a personalized and comprehensive plan for his or her transition to independent living. While this is a huge achievement for the aging-out population, the language of legislation excludes many foster youth who are arrested and committed to a detention facility. Current legislation dose not ensure that independent living services and opportunities for support under Fostering Connections are extended to foster youth who crossover to the justice system. This Note proposes that the Fostering Connections to Success Act be amended to require that states provide for continuous and coordinated independent living services when a youth in foster care enters the justice system. These services must include ongoing access to contact with child welfare professionals, family members, and mentors who may help the youth to draft a detailed independent living plan.
Extended Foster Care Support During the Transition to Adulthood: Effect on the Risk of Arrest
JoAnn S. Lee, Mark E. Courtney, Emiko Tajima
USA
2014
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Youth aging out of the foster care system are at high risk for adult arrests, but providing extended foster care support during the early years of their transition from adolescence to independent adulthood may reduce this risk. This study used survey data from the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (N = 732) matched with official arrest data to estimate the potential benefit of providing extended foster care support in reducing the risk of arrest in the early transition period. In addition, other factors related to the risk of arrest for these former foster youth were explored. Event history modeling techniques were used to estimate the impact of extended care on the risk of a first adult arrest. Models were estimated for men and women separately, and for all non-procedural arrests and violent arrests only. Extended care is associated with a lower risk of arrest in the first year, but appears to have a declining effect over time.
Child Protection and Adult Crime: Using Investigator Assignment to Estimate Causal Effects of Foster Care
Joseph J. Doyle, Jr.
USA
2008
This paper uses the randomization of families to child protection investigators to estimate causal effects of foster care on adult crime. The analysis uses a new data set that links criminal justice data to child protection data in Illinois, and I find that investigators affect foster care placement. Children on the margin of placement are found to be two to three times more likely to enter the criminal justice system as adults if they were placed in foster care. One innovation describes the types of children on the margin of placement, a group that is more likely to include African Americans, girls, and young adolescents.
Strong Progress Towards a Child First Youth Justice System
Claudia Sturt
UK
2022
Claudia Sturt, Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board (YJB), looks at the YJB’s activity over the past year.
Data Gap: Governments Don’t Track How Many Inmates Have Been in Care
Anna McMillan
Canada
2020
A Shocking Report Details How Ontario’s Most Vulnerable Youths are Shuttled from Child Protection to the Justice System
Sandro Contento, Jim Rankin
Canada
2020
Canada’s ‘Crossover’ Youth Need a Children’s Commissioner
Kristyn Anderson
Canada
2020
Criminal Justice System Treats Children like Small Adults
Peter Lusche
USA
2017
Why are children in CAS care described like criminals?
Laurie Monsebraaten
Canada
2015
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