Addressing the Needs of Youth with Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice System: The Current State of Knowledge

Addressing the Needs of Youth with Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice System: The Current State of Knowledge Daniel P. Mears Laudan Y. Aron RESEARCH REPORT November 2003 research for safer communities URBAN INSTITUTE Justice Policy Center DISABILITY AND JUVENILE JUSTICE URBAN INSTITUTE Acknowledgements This report was written by Daniel P. Mears, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Justice Policy Center (JPC) and Laudan Aron, M.A., Research Associate, with assistance from Jenny Bernstein, B.A., Research Assistant, Labor and Social Policy Center (LPC), and Ruth M. White, M.A., Research Associate, JPC, for the Disability and Juvenile Justice project at the Urban Institute. The National Council on Disability (NCD) funded the project, award number JJ1. Many people contributed to the creation of this report, including the individuals who agreed to be interviewed. Their guidance was critical to informing this project, and we have tried to do justice to their insights throughout the report. We thank all of these people, especially Dr. Martin Gould, Senior Research Specialist at NCD and the program officer for this project, without whom this report could not have been written. Both Dr. Gould and Jeffrey Rosen, NCD’s Director of Policy and General Counsel, suggested changes to bring greater clarity and focus to the report. NCD’s external reviews also provided critical suggestions and advice that greatly improved the report’s organization and content. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Terence Dunworth, Director of the Justice Policy Center, and Shelli Rossman, Senior Research Associate with the JPC, both of whom provided many helpful comments and suggestions for improving the report. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of NCD or the Urban Institute, its board of trustees, or its sponsors. DISABILITY AND JUVENILE JUSTICE URBAN INSTITUTE i Executive Summary Overview This report summarizes and assesses the state of knowledge about children and youth with disabilities who are at risk of delinquency and involvement in, or who have already entered, the juvenile justice system. By highlighting what is known about addressing delinquency and the diverse needs among this population, it aims to inform policy discussions among policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. The report’s specific objectives are to examine: • current laws and philosophical frameworks affecting children and youth with disabilities who are at risk of delinquency or are involved in the juvenile justice system; • the relationship between disability, delinquency, and involvement in the juvenile justice system; • the factors associated with disability and delinquency; • current and anticipated delinquency and disability-related programming for children and youth with disabilities who may enter or are in the juvenile justice system; • the effectiveness of prevention, intervention and treatment, and management strategies for reducing delinquency and addressing disability-related needs among this population of children and youth; • barriers and facilitators to implementing effective strategies for helping these children and youth; and • recommended “next steps” for increasing the scope and quality of knowledge and practice for reducing delinquency among and addressing the disability-related needs of at-risk children and youth with disabilities. To achieve these objectives, the report provides a systematic, multidimensional review of existing research and includes insights provided by service providers, administrators, policymakers, advocates, and researchers. It does not analyze new or existing data, nor does it discuss any one particular issue in detail. Rather, the report examines a range of interrelated issues to establish a broad-based foundation—a portrait of the “forest”—for understanding what is and is not known about children and youth with disabilities who are at risk of delinquency or juvenile justice involvement or who are already involved in the justice system. Because there is no universally accepted definition, and thus measurement, of disability among children and youth, the report relies on the different definitions used in existing research. Federal legislative acts, professional organizations, social service and health agencies, schools, and various programs employ different terms, define the same terms differently, and use different types of information and approaches to diagnose and classify disabilities. Frequently, for example, terms such as “disorder,” “impairment,” “deficit,” or “handicap” are used interchangeably even when they reflect different conceptualizations and measurements of disabilities. Some of the more common sources of data for assessing disabilities include biomedical evidence (e.g., to assess visual, auditory, or motor impairments), psychometric evaluations (e.g., to assess mental retardation or the presence of learning disabilities), and clinical