NIJ Evaluation: Crisis Response and Prevention

The National Institute of Justice has taken a close look at crisis response programs within schools. These crisis response programs differ from the ones funded by Community-based Aid grants in that they are within schools, rather than the broader community.

These programs are organized into tiers. The first tier involves teaching student leaders how to use practical, nonviolent communication and intervention skills. These students also communicate with school staff to discuss observations they have made about bullying and harassment.

The second tier identifies students who may need emotional or behavioral support. After a student is identified, they are assessed and linked to services in the third tier. These tiers are intended to help prevent an emotional crisis from happening in the school.

The fourth tier involves responding to a crisis as it happens in the school. A licensed, certified social worker (or workers) intervene with a student who is having a crisis. They use culturally-sensitive, school-informed protocol to assist the student. After the crisis is responded to, tier five involves connecting that student to aftercare to prevent a relapse.

This intervention proves promising, according to the NIJ. While the program did result in a significantly lower frequency of office referrals and suspensions, it does not appear to have affected the frequency of bullying, juvenile justice referrals, or emotional/behavioral health incidents.

To learn more about this intervention, please visit the NIJ website to see their evaluation in more detail.

New OJJDP Resources: Juvenile Statistics

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has released three new books focusing on statistics for juveniles in the United States. These books are freely available to the public. The JJI has also provided permanent links to these books on our Resources page so they can be more easily accessed in the future.

Juvenile Court Statistics 2018 - This resource describes delinquency cases and status offense cases between 2005 and 2018 from all over the US. The report details the types of cases heard in juvenile courts and frequency of delinquent actions.

Juvenile Arrests, 2018 - In this report, the author examines juvenile arrest rates and details from 2018, and compares this data to previous years. There is a downward trend in juvenile arrest rates since the mid-90s. This report also breaks down arrest rates by demographics.

Juveniles in Residential Placement, 2017 - This report examines the number and demographics of youth in residential placement. The author also examines the differences between public and private facilities, demographic information, and compares rates between states and over time.

NIJ Evaluation: Expressive Writing

The National Institute of Justice has released an evaluation focusing on programs using expressive writing as a means of intervention. This intervention is also known as written emotional disclosure, and it is designed to help youth express themselves emotionally and process their emotions to adapt to stressful situations. The target population of this intervention was youth aged 10 to 18.

Youth are encouraged to write about a particular topic during sessions taking about 15 to 20 minutes. They are told to write about a particular topic, including a stressful or challenging event in their life, an ongoing issue in their lives, their relationships with family and/or friends, and so on. All writing is kept confidential, and youth are reassured that they do not need to worry about spelling or grammar.

The NIJ’s evaluation found evidence suggesting that expressive writing is effective with regards to multiple juvenile problem/at-risk behaviors, internalizing behavior, school participation, and somatic complaints.

To read more about expressive writing, please visit the NIJ’s website after this link.