Special Themed Section on Emerging Findings From the Frontlines of Juvenile Justice Transformation

• Author: Sarah C. Walker,Faye S. Taxman
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00938548221138136
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: SPECIAL THEMED SECTION: Transformative Areas in Juvenile Justice

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2023, Vol. 50, No. 1, January 2023, 3 –5.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548221138136

Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions

© 2022 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology

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SPECIAL THEMED SECTION ON EMERGING

FINDINGS FROM THE FRONTLINES OF

JUVENILE JUSTICE TRANSFORMATION

SARAH C. WALKER

University of Washington

FAYE S. TAXMAN

George Mason University

In this special themed section, we desired to highlight findings in transformative areas of juvenile justice operations. Our

initial goal was not to focus on ancillary treatment programs, probation programs, court processes, diversion, and/or

leadership training. That is, we were interested in scholarly studies that examined fundamental transformations in system

operations. We discovered that there was little academically oriented research that was being devoted to documenting,

studying, and measuring the impact of these transformation, and that there are few efforts to advance our knowledge

about both how to do transformation and the resulting impacts of these transformations. We were primarily interested in

system change at the macro-level to help inform others about what transformation no the ground looks like, and how it

affects the operations of a juvenile justice system.

Keywords: probation; juvenile justice; implementation; parenting; systems transformation

The last decade is notable for the re-envisioning of juvenile justice practice and strides to

reform the juvenile justice system. The National Research Council’s (2013) report

Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach provided seven recommendations

for transformation: providing accountability without criminalization, providing alternatives

to system involvement, and increased family engagement. The RFK Research Council for

Juvenile Justice outlined the operational capacities that would be needed to achieve these

aims (Tuell and Harp, 2019), including the need for collaborative leadership, positive youth

development programs, better implementation of risk and needs tools, and quality assur-

ance infrastructure. Similarly, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

passed a resolution indicating the need for probation supervision to reflect principles of

adolescent development including the use of positive reinforcement, family engagement,

and personalized plans based on need rather than offense type. Collectively reform efforts

have resulted in structured risk and needs tools for case planning, the use of diversion for

AUTHORS’ NOTE: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Faye S. Taxman, George

Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22001; e-mail: ftaxman@gmu.edu.

1138136CJBXXX10.1177/00938548221138136Criminal Justice and BehaviorWalker, Taxman /

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