David Myers
Professor Of Criminal Justice, University Of New Haven
Key Findings
- More work needs to be done to bridge the gap between research and practice to promote accountability in juvenile justice systems.
- Challenges to accountability include practitioners being weary of the role science has in their personal encounters and a lack of resources required to track outcomes.
Description
In the article, “Accountability and Evidence-based Approaches: Theory and Research for Juvenile Justice,” Myers reviews aspects of accountability in today’s juvenile justice systems. There is not much empirical evidence on how juvenile justice systems perform nationally and if policy reforms are successful. The first juvenile courts were created with rehabilitation at the core, which later shifted to a more punishment-based approach. Now, there seems to be a balance between punishment and rehabilitation. Myers notes that many juvenile justice agencies create data that doesn’t measure program performance. However,there have been new attempts to make evaluation mission-driven and produce better empirical data for program evaluation, even if they are slow to catch on. Another aspect of accountability is evidence-based programs, which look to improve delivery of interventions based on research. This topic is growing in popularity but challenges include practitioners being weary of the role science has in their personal encounters and a lack of resources required to track outcomes. In conclusion, Myers notes that more work needs to be done to bridge the gap between research and practice to promote accountability in juvenile justice systems.