Divert, Deflect, or Do Nothing? Practical Recommendations for Handling Juvenile Delinquency

• In Event: Policy-Implications of DLC Research 1: Youth Justice Through a Life-Course Lens

Abstract

Research has consistently shown that even minor forms of justice system involvement, such as being stopped and questioned by the police, can have damaging effects on youths’ attitudes toward the law, educational outcomes, and future delinquent behavior. To minimize such developmental harms of justice system involvement, researchers have called for minimal responses to juvenile delinquency. These ideas are not new; in 1938, Tannenbaum suggested a “refusal to dramatize the evil,” and a wave of early labeling theorists in the 1960s and 1970s called for radical nonintervention. An emerging body of research finds that the most effective alternative is to minimize system involvement and, when intervention is necessary, provide intensive, community-based services. Diversion programs that direct youth away from formal adjudication after they enter the system are most effective when they incorporate evidence-based treatments rather than serving as administrative alternatives to court processing. Deflection extends this logic by redirecting youth at the earliest point of system contact, although the evidence base associated with this strategy remains more limited. In this presentation, we weigh in on diversion away from formal processes and deflection, outlining what is known about these strategies and detailing best practices for policy makers and practitioners.

Authors

• Stephanie Wiley, University of Oregon

• Lee Slocum, University of Missouri-St. Louis