Juvenile Probation Transformation.

The Juvenile Justice Research and Reform Lab has partnered with more than 200 counties across the country to reform juvenile probation systems to facilitate youths' successful completion of probation, enhance public safety, and create a more equitable system. The lab also researches the impacts of juvenile probation policies and practices to inform effective and sustainable system change.

Guided by research on adolescent development, procedural justice, and best practices in youth behavior change, Dr. Goldstein and the JJR&R Lab collaborate with juvenile justice stakeholders to restructure juvenile probation policies and practices so that expectations placed upon youth under court supervision align with adolescents' developmental decision-making capacities. The goals of this work are to incorporate effective behavior change techniques into juvenile probation practices to enhance youths' abilities to successfully complete probation, reduce recidivism, and promote long-term positive outcomes for young people and their communities.

Featured Activities

In Philadelphia
With support from a Stoneleigh Foundation fellowship, Dr. Goldstein and the JJR&R Lab collaborated with Philadelphia's Juvenile Probation Department to develop and implement a graduated response system for youth under court supervision. A graduated response system involves short- and long-term goal setting and structured use of incentives and interventions to promote youths' positive behaviors, modify challenging behaviors, foster predictable and equitable decision making, and reduce system-wide use of detention and placement while enhancing public safety.

This developmentally informed graduated response approach to case management is now used by all Philadelphia juvenile probation officers with all youth from the beginning of their probation supervision through their discharge from the justice system.

Across Pennsylvania
Dr. Goldstein and the Lab collaborate with Pennsylvania's Juvenile Court Judges' Commission and Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers to develop policies, procedures, resources, and trainings to assist counties across the state with similar juvenile probation reform efforts. To date, the Lab has trained and/or provided technical assistance to 61 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties to help them develop, implement, and evaluate graduated response systems in their juvenile probation departments.

Additionally, a Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellowship was awarded to the Lab to collaborate with state organizing bodies to develop and implement a peer-mentorship technical assistance model to support the continuation, expansion, and sustainability of graduated response systems across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  

Nationally
With support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and local and state funding, Dr. Goldstein and the JJR&R Lab provide training and technical assistance to jurisdictions across the United States seeking to develop, implement, and evaluate similar probation transformation initiatives. To supplement these efforts, Dr. Goldstein and the Annie E. Casey Foundation created, The Adolescent Brain and Youth Development Course, an online, asynchronous course in the Foundation's Probation Transformation course series for juvenile probation officers and other juvenile justice system personnel. The Lab is also partnering with the Annie E. Casey foundation to create a Community of Practice of probation departments working to to build developmentally responsive juvenile justice systems. 

Related Lab Publications

McPhee, J., Huett, B., Brogan, L., McCurdy, E., Nemoyer, A., Kreimer, R., DeYoung, L., Goldstein, N. (2023). Assessing Readiness for Change of Juvenile Probation Policies and Practices: A Factor Analysis of the Probation Officer Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behavior (POABB) Scale. Journal of Applied Juvenile Justice Services, https://doi.org/10.52935/23.13316.05.

Brogan, L., McPhee, J., Gale-Bentz, E., Rudd, B., Goldstein, N.E. (2021). Shifting Probation Culture and Advancing Juvenile Probation Reform through a Community-based, Participatory-Action Research-Informed Training. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 38(7), 1-20.

NeMoyer, A., Gale-Bentz, E., Goldstein, N. E. S., Harvey, L. P. (2019). Factors associated with successful completion of a community-based, post-arrest juvenile diversion program and subsequent rearrest. Crime and Delinquency. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/011128719842377.
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Goldstein, N. E. S., Gale-Bentz, E., McPhee, J., NeMoyer, A., Walker, A., Bishop, S., Soler, M., Szanyi, J., Schwartz, R. G. (2019). Applying the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ resolution to juvenile probation reform. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 5, 170-181.

Gale-Bentz, E., Goldstein, N. E. S., Cole, L., & Durham, K. (2019). Impact of community-based provider reports on juvenile probation officers’ recommendations: Effects of positive and negative framing on decision making. Law and Human Behavior, 43, 193-204.

Feierman, J., Mozaffar, N., Goldstein, N., & Haney-Caron, E. (2018). The price of justice: The high costs of “free” counsel in the juvenile justice system. Retrieved from https://debtorsprison.jlc.org/documents/JLC-Debtors-Paying-for-Justice.pdf

Heilbrun, K., Goldstein, N., DeMatteo, D., Newsham, R., Gale-Bentz, E., Cole, L., & Arnold, S. (2017). The sequential intercept model and juvenile justice: Review and prospectus. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 35, 319-336. 

​Goldstein, N. E. S., NeMoyer, A., Gale-Bentz, E., Levick, M., & Feierman, J. (2016). You're on the right track! Using graduated response systems to address immaturity of judgment and enhance youths' capacities to successfully complete probation. Temple Law Review, 88, 803-836. 

NeMoyer, A., Holliday, S. B., Goldstein, N. E. S., & McKitten, R. L. (2016). Predicting probation revocation and residential facility placement at juvenile probation review hearings: Youth-specific and hearing-specific factors. Law and Human Behavior, 40, 970-105.

NeMoyer, A., Goldstein, N. E. S., McKitten, R. L., Prelic, A., Ebbecke, J., Foster, E., & Burkard, C. (2014). Predictors of juveniles' noncompliance with probation requirements. Law and Human Behavior, 38, 580-591.

In the Media

• American Psychological Association - "The psychological science of adolescent behavior and decision-making is reshaping the juvenile justice system"
• Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice - March 2023 Newsletter (page 10)
  
• Juvenile Justice Information Exchange - "Probation Must Be Reformed Nationwide By Focusing on Incentives"
• Justice for Teens (American Psychological Association's Monitor On Psychology)
• ​Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice - May 2017 Newsletter (page 7)

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