Journal of Applied Juvenile Justice Services
The Journal of Applied Juvenile Justice Services (JAJJS) is a refereed, multi-disciplinary publication proudly sponsored by the National Partnership for Juvenile Services. JAJJS is committed to advancing useable knowledge about effective practices, strategies, and standards to positively impact the field of juvenile justice services, youth, families, and communities.
National Partnership for Juvenile Services
Lessons Learned from a Multidisciplinary Collaborative Supporting Juvenile Reentry
Multidisciplinary collaboration is paramount to engendering efficacious juvenile reentry. As the lives of juvenile offenders are infused with interwoven complexities and traumas leading to involvement with the juvenile justice system, a multifaceted approach permeated with varying perspectives is imperative. Effective juvenile reentry partnerships must embrace inclusivity and distinctly capitalize on the wide-ranging expertise encapsulated within a multidisciplinary team. Multidisciplinary collaboration is vital for juvenile offenders to return to the community from confinement with a comprehensive understanding of their situation as well as an assortment of approaches to mitigating their challenges both within and outside of the juvenile justice system. This manuscript will describe a unique approach and promising strategies designed to foster a smooth transition of urban juvenile offenders from confinement at a short-term detention facility back into the community. Lessons learned from a multidisciplinary collaboration between school districts, probation, health care, and city agencies designed to support juvenile reentry will be highlighted. Implications for replication among collaborative partners within the context of juvenile justice systems will be discussed.
Copyright (c) 2019 Journal of Applied Juvenile Justice Services https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Community-based Alternatives to Detention: Implementation Evidence on Evening Reporting Centers
Evening reporting centers are an emerging best practice in community-based alternatives to detention. We ground our discussion of Alameda County (CA)’s evening reporting centers within an understanding of youth development theories, including the social cognitive career theory. Alameda County is a diverse county in California’s San Francisco Bay Area that includes Oakland. We used diverse sources of administrative data to describe the implementation of the evening reporting centers and report on outcomes of youth involved. We find that evening reporting centers are aligned with youth development theory. For example, they offer an opportunity for disadvantaged youth to build positive relationships with adults, which can contribute to positive youth development.
Beyond Skin Deep: Understanding Disproportionate Minority Contact through Ethnocultural Implicit Bias and the Decision-Making Process among Justice System Gatekeepers
Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) has been studied as a social phenomenon for decades. Despite the quality research done on this construct, efforts to reduce disproportionality across the justice system have been marginally successful. Historically, DMC has been viewed from a perspective that attributes a macro level construct (systemic minority overrepresentation) to micro level processes (individual decision-making), with the most of the research focusing on whether DMC exists and the scope of the problem, rather than why it exists. The present article offers a theoretical explanation of DMC through an expanded lens of implicit bias. While implicit bias is usually discussed from a racial context, the discretionary decisions of justice system gatekeepers are subject to implicit biases transcendent of race. These biases, which may be grounded in ethnocultural differences, present the risk for inequitable criminal justice decision-making and may be driving the overrepresentation of minority youth in the justice system. The tenets of this perspective, as well as applications and recommendations are discussed.
The Competency Attainment Outcomes of 1,913 Juveniles Found Incompetent to Stand Trial Janet I.
Our study examines the outcomes of remediation services provided to 1,913 juveniles who have been determined to be incompetent to stand trial and ordered into remediation services by the court. These services were offered based upon statutory guidelines legislated in 1999, through a statewide, community-based program maintained by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (VA DBHDS). Recipients of these services were eight through 18-years-old and were predominantly African-American (73%), Caucasian (21%), and Hispanic (3%). Our outcome data indicate that 76% of the youth ordered into remediation services were determined by the court to have been remediated, 19% unlikely to attain competency, and 5% had their charges dismissed. Remediation services were offered within the community and received by the majority of the youth within three months at an estimated cost of $5,000 per juvenile. Rates of remediation differed based upon the age and mental status of the youth receiving services with 7% of youth aged eight to 10 years being remediated compared to 44% of those aged 14 to 16 years of age. Youth with a diagnosis of both intellectual disability and mental disorder were the least likely to be remediated with 51% determined to be unlikely to attain competency and an additional 28% having their charges dismissed. These outcomes are similar to those obtained with incompetent adult defendants, often through costly periods of inpatient hospitalization, raising the question of why states would not provide these due process protections to the most vulnerable youth within the juvenile system.
A Comprehensive Analysis of Determinants of Risk Assessment Among Youths Adjudicated to Indiana Juvenile Correctional Facilities
Risk factors (or criminogenic needs) have been broadly defined as individual traits or environmental conditions, if present, that increase the youth’s likelihood of engaging in delinquent or criminal behaviors. This study was consisted of 2,335 youths who were adjudicated to Indiana juvenile correctional facilities during the period of January 1, 2012-February, 2015. Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) Division of Youth Services (DYS) has employed the Indiana Youth Assessment System (IYAS) to determine the youth’s risk level during the in-take process, which contains thirty-three (33) survey questions across seven (7) risk factor domains. This study found that all seven (7) assessment domains were influential predictors to the overall risk assessment and the “substance abuse, mental health, and personality” risk domain exerted the most influential effect on the youth’s overall risk assessment.
The Impact of an Alternative to Detention Program on Developmental Assets for Adolescents Involved in the Juvenile Justice or Legal System
Positive youth development (PYD) models can play a critical role in programming for at-risk youth involved with the Juvenile Justice System (JJS) or legal system. This article reports on the outcomes of a study that examined the impact of the Reinvesting in Youth (RIY) program on increasing developmental assets for youth who are at-risk for detention or higher level of care placements. RIY is a three to six month preventive and ATD program within a large non-profit behavioral healthcare organization that provides case management, community asset navigation, and academic support through an asset-building framework. Fifty-nine youth discharged from RIY were included in the study. The impact of the program was measured using the Developmental Assets Profile (DAP). Using a dependent samples t-test, results indicate that the RIY program has a significant and positive impact on increasing assets from admission to discharge on total asset scores, internal and external assets, and seven of the eight asset categories.
Making Time for Youth: Delay and Timely Case Processing in the Juvenile Court
It is through timely case processing that the juvenile court is better primed to achieve its goals, whether these goals pertain to crime-control, treatment, legal or restorative justice, or some combination thereof. Drawing a random sample of cases (N=394) from a large Midwestern juvenile court filed between 2012 and 2016, the present study identifies factors that influence timeliness in the juvenile court. Controlling for diagnostic evaluations, failure to appear, offense severity, prior involvement, and judge idiosyncrasies, statistically significant relationships were observed between timely case processing and factors measuring caseload, judge placements, lawyer placements, pleading guilty, detention, and method of filing.
Do Diverted Kids Stay Out of Trouble?: A Longitudinal Analysis of Recidivism Outcomes in Diversion
This study evaluates the effectiveness of a police diversion program between 2008 and 2016. Youth participating in the diversion program were compared to youth not participating in diversion on the probability of, and time to, second offense using unadjusted comparisons at 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months, unadjusted lifetable comparisons of time to second arrest, and Cox multivariate proportional hazards regression models. Diverted youth had significantly fewer second offenses. The rate of recidivism among diverted youth was lower than non-diversion youth at all time periods in unadjusted models, and statistically significant at 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months.
An Evaluation of “Transforming Youth Justice: A Leadership Development Program”
As part of the modern evidence-based movement in juvenile justice, effective leadership is necessary for planning, implementing, and evaluating policies, programs, and practices, along with guiding innovative reform efforts. Leadership development programs hold promise for advancing the field of juvenile justice, by enhancing participant leadership skills and abilities, as well as increasing opportunities for networking and further professional development. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate a juvenile justice leadership program in Connecticut. Overall, the findings from the mixed-methods research were supportive. Implications for similar programs and future research also are discussed.
An Investigation of the Impact of Functional Impairment and Risk Level on Adolescent Recidivism
One hundred and sixteen male adolescent offenders were followed two years post-release to investigate the role of functional impairment and risk level on recidivism. Functional impairment had a significant impact on recidivism. Implications for future research are discussed.
Challenges to Hispanic Youth with Both Delinquency and Maltreatment History
Child victims of maltreatment (abuse or neglect) are at higher risk of delinquency. When children experience both maltreatment and delinquency, they generally face more challenges and experience poorer outcomes across many factors. Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in the U.S. and have unique cultural and familial considerations. This study sought to explore how adjudicated Hispanic youths with maltreatment history (also referred to as “dually identified youths”) compare to Hispanic youths involved only in the juvenile justice system across psychosocial risk factors and indicators of risk. In El Paso County, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border, the researchers matched the records of 255 adjudicated Hispanic juvenile offenders with Child Protective Services’ (CPS) records to identify those with a substantiated maltreatment history. The researchers found that 37 youth (14.5 percent) had been involved in at least one confirmed CPS case. Dually identified juveniles were more likely to have a mental health diagnosis, a court-appointed attorney (used as a proxy for general socioeconomic status), and a close family member with substance abuse problems or criminal justice involvement. On average, dually identified youths faced a larger number of these challenges combined than the youths involved only in delinquency. These findings are discussed in light of prior research on dually identified populations, with implications for juvenile justice and child protective services policy, and research on Hispanic juveniles.
Healing Lives and Communities: How Can NGOs Support Restorative Justice Involving Youth?
Restorative justice is gaining momentum as a more effective and holistic response to delinquent juvenile behavior. Four decades of research relates restorative justice initiatives to positive outcomes including enhanced victim and offender satisfaction and sense of fairness, increased compliance with restitution, and reduced recurrence of offensive behaviors (Hansen & Umbreit, 2018). This paper discusses the benefits of restorative justice, reviews four major restorative justice approaches, and then explores the value and potential roles of community-based, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in supporting restorative justice policies and practices, particularly involving young people. The authors’ experience working with Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP), a U.S. based nonprofit organization that promotes community-based alternatives to institutionalization for juvenile justice involved youth with complex needs and challenges, informs their perspective. The authors aspire through this paper to cultivate community interest and engagement in restorative justice through presenting several pathways for NGOs to promote its practices and related benefits.
Copyright (c) 2020 Journal of Applied Juvenile Justice Services https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Response to JJ-TRIALS Implementation and Collaboration: Impressions and Recommendations by Juvenile Justice Partners
Examining the Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences among Juvenile Offenders
While prior research has examined trauma and maltreatment rates among juvenile offenders, there has been limited research using an ACE risk assessment to measure the ACE prevalence among juvenile offenders. Further use and examination of these risk assessments are needed, as these assessments provide screening results to target interventions and prevent reoffending. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences among a sample of juvenile offenders (n=391) to examine whether the type of ACE experienced varied by recidivism, gender, or racial/ethnic differences. Our study findings demonstrate that juvenile offenders have higher prevalence rates of parental separation/divorce, parental incarceration, and household violence than adolescents nationally, and confirm previous findings that parental separation/divorce is significantly associated with recidivism. Our study also found significant differences in ACE exposure, by sex, among juvenile detention offenders. Implications and limitations are discussed.
A Relationship between Adolescent Males and Sexual Deviance: A Descriptive Study
The absence of male supervision in a home might explain why adolescent males are more likely to commit sexual misconduct misdemeanor offenses, and felony sex offenses. For this study, the social control theory was the perspective that could explain why adolescent males may be prone to delinquent or criminal behavior. The study included a sample of 539 adolescent males. The study was a quantitative descriptive design utilizing data from Florida Department of Juvenile Justices’ male offenders’ Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT) transcripts. Sexual misconduct misdemeanor offenses and felony sex offenses inferential statistics from PACT was used to compare differences between adolescent male offenders who had a mother and father present at home and adolescent male offenders who did not have a father at home. International Business Machines Corporation IBM® SPSS® software was used to provide inferential statistical data. A chi-square statistical method was used to analyze and interpret the quantitative data. The quantitative analysis was a descriptive analysis. The results suggested there was no statistical significance. However, the study illustrated that sexual offenses statistically were different from non-sexual offenses, and further research should be conducted to determine why there are differences.
Copyright (c) 2021 Journal of Applied Juvenile Justice Services https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Hiring Juvenile Delinquents: Employer Callbacks from a Correspondence Study
Employers are less likely to call back job applicants with criminal records; however, few studies have examined the impact of a delinquency history on employment outcomes in adulthood. Historically, juveniles have been protected from stigmas associated with delinquent records, as state policies allowed for the sealing or expungement of records. However, juveniles could now face similar stigmas as adults, as states are increasingly limiting the expungement protections for juvenile delinquents; juveniles are frequently posting personal information online; juveniles could feel pressured by potential employers to disclose a delinquency history; and juveniles transferred into criminal court do not receive record protections. A correspondence study was conducted using two fictitious resumes sent to employers in Northern Nevada, one with a delinquency history and one without a delinquency history. Unexpectedly, employers showed no bias toward delinquent applicants in the current study. Explanations for this finding, policy implications, and directions for future research are discussed.
Examining What Works for High Risk Youth Involved in the Juvenile Justice System
Using administrative data collected by an urban juvenile probation department between January 2007 and August 2016, this study compared the impact of the Community Connections (CC) program to a matched sample of youth who received intensive supervision probation (ISP) on six time-to-event variables (i.e., time to second program, detention, out-of-home placement, another offense, violation of court order, and days in program). The study included youth who were assigned to court-ordered post-adjudication community supervision and who were deemed to have a high risk of re-offending by the department’s risk and needs assessment. CC and ISP youth were matched using propensity score matching that created a final sample of 381 youth in each program. When examining the program effect of CC vs. ISP on the time-to-event variables the findings were mixed. However, across both programs, the analysis revealed that youth who remained in the programs longer and youth with a successful program discharge generally experienced better long-term outcomes than their peers.
Building Blocks of Resilience: Applications for Justice Involved Youth
This paper describes potential benefits and empirical support for applying key components of Resilience theory and its associated models to intervention strategies within the field of juvenile justice. Traditionally, practitioners have utilized aspects of resilience theory for clients and patients within psychology, social work, and medicine. However, emerging research has demonstrated that the process of positively coping with risk can minimize factors that promote delinquency and criminality. Results have demonstrated that constructs such as low self-esteem, school detachment, poor socialization, and environmental influences can be positively affected by implementing critical features of resiliency. Additionally, implications are provided for practitioners seeking to develop or improve intervention programs such as restorative justice, and recommended areas for further research are provided.
A Conceptual Framework for Creating Transition Plans for Incarcerated Youth
Incarcerated youth face many challenges as they transition back to the community. The development and implementation of person-centered transition plans have been shown to improve re-engagement in education and employment, and to reduce recidivism. There is, however, little research to guide personnel in juvenile justice settings as to what a transition plan should contain and how it could be implemented. This article offers a conceptual framework based on transition theories, the extant research literature on transition plans and services, and practitioner experience to inform transition plan components for all young people in custody, with a focus on youth with disabilities and in out-of-home care.
Pennsylvania Juvenile Probation Departments in the Wake of the Luzerne County Scandal: What Has Changed?
In 2008, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania made national headlines when the “Kids for Cash Scandal” broke. As a result of the actions of the Juvenile Court Judge and other juvenile system personnel, the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice was created to develop rules to prevent the juvenile justice system in Pennsylvania from failing again. The purpose of this study was to determine how juvenile probation practices have changed since the scandal and if those departments were following through with the recommendations of the Commission. While many policies and practices have changed since the scandal, such as the policies regarding gifts and gratuities, there was a lack of consistency in the magnitude of those changes.
Delivering Trauma-Informed Care in the Juvenile Justice Setting
Youth taken from the home and placed in emergency shelter, secure detention, and residential settings are exposed to new sources of trauma and danger that may reactivate severe stress symptoms leading to re-traumatization. A juvenile justice center planned a trauma-informed, system-focused intervention that included recommended elements: appropriate assessments of trauma symptoms, evidence-based programs and treatments to build resilience skills in youth and families, staff training, community collaboration and partnerships, and a safe environment to reduce the risk of re-traumatization. The purpose of this study was to describe the implementation over two years of the trauma-informed, system-focused intervention in the juvenile justice center and associated effects on youth trauma symptoms. Current and past traumatic event exposure, change in youth participants’ emotional regulation, effects of an evidence-based, trauma-informed therapeutic intervention on youth participants’ stress symptoms, and quality of the organizational trauma-informed care plan were assessed. Although efforts to improve participant emotional regulation and post-traumatic stress symptoms did not demonstrate significant differences, efforts to screen for trauma exposure at intake provided important information about participant multiple traumas to assist with the therapeutic process. Efforts in changing organizational culture and policy did result in minor self-reported facility environmental improvements. For the practitioner, even when an intervention is well planned, results are not always positive in actual practice.
Gender-Specific Programming and Trauma-Informed Approaches
Yoga has been making its way into juvenile detention centers, but little research has looked at the possible effects of yoga on this special population of individuals. The purpose of this paper is to review the relevant literature available on the effects of yoga on youth involved with the justice system and its po-tential for rehabilitation. Notably, the objective here is to highlight the need for gender-specific program-ming, specifically those designed with women and girls in mind. This paper takes a gender-responsive and trauma-informed approach when discussing literature on alternative rehabilitation and, importantly, identifies the gaps in previous research while offering ways of improvement. The findings in this review highlight the need for trauma-informed care and gender-specific programming. Importantly, this review identifies the need for race-sensitive programming while addressing cultural, historical, and gender-based issues within the field of criminology and criminal justice. Overall, we find that gender-specific programs are useful but lack in implementation and program evaluation. With that said, more research is needed in this area of study.
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Applied Juvenile Justice Services https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Educational Experiences: Voices of Incarcerated Male Youth & School-to-Prison Pipeline
Youth who experience academic failure are at a greater risk for involvement in delinquency. While studies have revealed a myriad of factors for such failure, the perceptions of these youth regarding their educational experiences have proven to be one of the most valuable resources regarding the systematic barriers to academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to understand how incarcerated male youth perceive their educational experiences. Results indicated that some incarcerated youth make meaning of their educational experiences through a series of complex events, changes and circumstances occurring in their school and personal lives. Some of these were positive, while others often exposed them to unhealthy environments, substance abuse and criminal elements. Although their experiences varied, it was clear that failure was an ongoing occurrence throughout their academic journey. Their stories were also rife with suspensions, expulsion, truancy, retention, academic failure, school violence, poverty and parental neglect; furthermore, youth revealed personal challenges that had a direct or indirect impact on their academic journey, including feeling of inferiority due to their academic shortcomings.
Implementing a Sexual Risk Avoidance Intervention in a Juvenile Justice Setting: What We Learned, and How it Can Help Others
Despite relatively high rates of teen pregnancy and sexual risk taking among justice-involved youth, there is a scarcity of programming to help these youth become better informed about sexual health and decision making. The lack of adequate programming may in part be due to challenges that exist when trying to develop and implement programs in juvenile justice settings. Project With is a sexual risk avoidance intervention that includes storytelling and mentoring components and is currently being implemented within a large juvenile justice agency in California. This paper shares the lessons learned through implementation of the Project With program at five juvenile justice facilities. These lessons focus on the relationships, processes, and logistics that facilitated and impeded implementation, as well as aspects of the Project With design that promoted youth engagement. In particular, insights about the importance of leveraging relationships, gathering buy-in at multiple levels, understanding the system, and allowing for flexibility are highlighted. A checklist is included to support other program developers and researchers who seek to create, implement, and study teen pregnancy prevention programming for justice-involved youth.
Moving the Needle: Cultivating Systemic Change in Juvenile Services
Approximately 1.7 million delinquency cases are disposed in juvenile courts annually (Puzzanchera, Adams, & Sickmund, 2011). Of these youth, tens of thousands experience confinement in the US (Sawyer, 2019), while hundreds of thousands experience probation or are sentenced to community based programs (Harp, Muhlhausen, & Hockenberry, 2019). These youth are placed in the care of programs overseen by directors and clinicians. A survey of facility directors and clinicians from member agencies of the National Partnership for Juvenile Services (NPJS) Behavioral Health Clinical Services (BHCS) committee identified three primary concerns practitioners face in caring for these youth; 1) low resources to recruit and retain quality staff, 2) training that is often not a match for, and does not equip staff to effectively manage the complex needs of acute youth, and 3) the perspective of direct care as an unskilled entry-level position with limited impact on youth’s rehabilitation. This article seeks to address these issues and seeks to highlight potential best practices to resolve for those obstacles within juvenile services.
Brain Injury in Justice-Involved Youth: Findings and Implications for Juvenile Service Professionals
It is well-established that the prevalence of brain injury among justice-involved populations is significantly greater than that of the general population. From 2014-2018, a demonstration project was conducted in two juvenile detention centers in southeastern PA. Its core strategy was to identify youth with history of brain injury; determine their neurocognitive barriers to successful re-entry; and create release plans including connections to appropriate resources. 489 youth participated. They were screened for brain injury utilizing the Ohio State University Traumatic Brain Injury Identification Method, and those who screened positive, were assessed utilizing standardized measures of memory and executive functioning. Results indicated that 49% had history of brain injury, with an average of 2.59 injuries per youth. 62% of injuries did not involve a loss of consciousness, and two-thirds never sought treatment for their injury. A history of repetitive blows to the head was also common, and often caused by violence. 147 youth were subsequently evaluated for cognitive impairment. 57% showed evidence of significant cognitive impairment, with the most common impairments being working memory, behavioral regulation, and delayed recall of novel information. Resources included referrals to brain injury school re-entry programs, vocational rehabilitation, and medical rehabilitation.
The Effects of Parental Monitoring on Adolescent Well-Being
Parental monitoring remains a central protective factor against a range of adolescent risk behaviors, including substance use, mental health issues, and negative peer influence. It involves parental awareness and oversight of adolescents’ friendships, activities, and digital behavior Recent scholarship has further advanced this understanding by exploring moderating influences such as neighborhood context, peer relationships, and cognitive factors. Building on this foundation, the present study examines the impact of parental monitoring on adolescent well-being, with a specific focus on the moderating role of school connectedness. This study used the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to examine the effect of parental monitoring on adolescent well-being mediating for school connectedness. To achieve this, researchers conducted binary logistic regression analyses explored four outcomes: poor mental health, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and drug use. Across all models, higher parental monitoring was associated with significantly lower odds of negative outcomes. These findings underscore the dual importance of engaged parenting and supportive school environments in promoting adolescent resilience, while also pointing to the need for tailored supports for vulnerable subgroups. Implications, future research, police, and practice are discussed.
Strategies for Enhancing Programming in Local Juvenile Courts: Logic Models and Quality Assurance Procedures
The authors provide a case-study related to a recent project using program logic models as a primary component in the implementation of a formal quality assurance process in a local juvenile court. Program logic models illustrate the evolution of court personnel’s thoughts about how best to conceptualize programming. Juvenile court officials are developing and implementing formal “quality assurance” procedures to allow for ongoing planning and program development. The authors argue that quality assurance procedures hold great promise for assuring that juvenile court programming is efficient and effective and serves the needs of local communities.
The Effect of a Character Education Program on Moral Development and Self-Esteem of At-Risk Youth
The purpose of this study was to examine the results of a psychological and educational intervention with at-risk youth that could benefit from a character education program. All sessions and material used focused on improving moral development and possibly self-esteem in each child. In summary, the findings did not support the use of the present character education intervention with the targeted population sample. The study did provide encouragement to continue to design and investigate programs that could possibly benefit at-risk youth. Ancillary data was also discussed concerning the issue of a false sense of high self-esteem in at-risk youth. Implications for counselors are also discussed.
Attitudes toward Rehabilitation and Punishment Orientations among Juvenile Detention and Probation Officers
The purpose of this paper was to explore the individual factors, job perceptions, and organizational characteristics that predict rehabilitation and punishment orientations among juvenile detention and probation staff members. Our results indicated juvenile officers who reported more education, less job ambiguity, and more adequate safety training were more likely to indicate preference for a rehabilitation orientation. However, those who reported less education, worked in detention rather than probation, and had higher job ambiguity were more likely to hold a punishment orientation. Finally, individual characteristics had a greater impact on both rehabilitation and punishment than either job perceptions or organizational factors. These results provide useful information for agencies about staff perceptions, which may in turn impact their interactions with and decision-making related to juvenile offenders under their supervision.