Natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina have resulted in the displacement of families to locations throughout the nation. Juvenile courts have been affected by this mass migration of youths. Post-disaster recovery has been slow. Consequently, a cohort of youths has aged out of the juvenile justice system before their juvenile competency hearings could be held. Some of these young adults now...

some extent, but it is impossible to believe that they can account for such wide variations as these. They can only be taken as indicating a regrettable lack of any common standard. If the majority of courts arc right in concluding that at least half the offenders should be put on probation, then the courts that make as little use of it as some of those just mentioned must be falling below the ...

The juvenile court's role in handling child abuse and neglect cases changed and expanded greatly after the passage of the federal Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act in 1980 and following the enactment of many similar state laws. These federal and state "permanency planning" laws require child welfare agencies to make reasonable efforts to avoid the break-up of families, where safe and pr...

This paper examines the impact o.f organizational factors on the rate at which juvenile courts commit referred youth to institutions. Analyzing a national sample, the paper d.emonstrates that both .the rate at whi'ch cases are handled informally and the rate at which judges commit those youth who appear before them independently influence the overall commitment rate. It also discovers determina...