Date of Graduation

1997

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

With the alarming rate of school violence and teen crime public outcry demands that we look for immediate remedies to make schools and communities safe. One solution which has received public support is the current trend to solve this problem by building more juvenile facilities to house these youth. This short term fix, which has been referred to as an "out of sight out of mind mentality" creates other concerns such as loss of educational dollars to public schools and highlights the lack of commitment to provide effective programs to meet the needs of challenging students. The purpose of this research is to: (1) Examine two different methods of treatment for youth who have been adjudicated and have been sentenced to serve time; (2) Examine youth, their parents' and practitioners' perceptions of effective practices in the community based supervised probation program and services at institutional juvenile facilities; (3) Examine perceptions of parents, youth, and probation officers on the role that school has played in their lives; and (4) Examine the cost factors of having a youth sentenced in the community versus institutional placement. This research combines both quantitative and qualitative methods using data from two groups of adjudicated youth. Both groups have a history of school failure and court involvement. During the study period from January 1993-94, half of the participants were incarcerated at a state juvenile facility while the other half of the participants were court ordered to receive intensive probation in lieu of being sent to a state juvenile facility. This study will provide a three year follow-up of these two groups examining school performance, court involvement, personal reflections, and comments from their probation officers and parents.

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