This learning object is a Guide is to equip
juvenile justice agencies with baseline
information that will aid them in developing,
implementing, and enhancing teen court
programs as a viable alternative for juvenile
offenders in their communities. The Guide describes how the fundamental values of teen courts remain consistent across the United States despite considerable variety in their day-to-day operations.
Those interested in organizing such programs will find useful information about similarities and differences among programs. This information can be used to develop a
program that responds to and fulfill the unique
needs their local jurisdictions.
This guide identifies issues to consider and guides stakeholders through the development process for the implementation of a teen court. Sample forms and other helpful resources are also included as supplementary materials.
Type of Material:
- Reference material
Recommended Uses:
- Homework for students
- A guide for decision makers developing alternative juvenile intervention programs for their communities.
Technical Requirements:
- Browser
- Adobe Reader
Identify Major Learning Goals:
- Summarize teen court concept
- Organize stakeholders and community resources
- Identify legal issues
- Develop program purpose, goals, and objectives
- Determine target population
- Design program services
- Develop procedures and practices
- Staffing
- Evaluating programs
- Budget a teen court program
Target Student Population:
Lower and upper level college students in the social sciences / criminal justice
Students studying law
Professionals
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
- Understanding of the criminal justice system.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
This manual is very detailed and comprehensive on matters related to the implementation of a teen court.
Each chapter of the manual includes an introduction to the material to be presented and then the material follows in a logical sequence.
The references for the manual serves as additional resources for those interested in teen courts, especially governmental officials and court professionals and juvenile justice professionals.
Concerns:
Chapter 10 of the manual appears to be a scanned copy of the material as compared to the other chapters that were cleanly converted to the portable document format.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The manual includes a series of 10 chapters on all of the critical topics necessary to learn about the role of teen courts in the judicial system and how to implement teen courts within a judicial system and a juvenile justice system (may encourage a cooperative environment).
The manual includes a chapter on program evaluation that provides those interested in developing a teen court with the head start on what should be evaluated and how the evaluation should be conducted.
Concerns:
The manual begins with a chapter that provides an overview of the concept of a teen court and its benefit to the judicial/juvenile justice systems and the youth of a community. The chapter is rather brief and fails to taken into account that many of those who will read or refer to this manual probably do not have a sufficient background in the appropriate field to fully understand the wealth of material presented.
The history of teen courts is less than two pages in Chapter 1 and is insufficient to fully understand the history of such courts.
Most of the chapters are 13 pages or less and may be too short to meet the need of the material being presented and the importance of the material.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Each chapter of the manual is presented in a clean and easy to follow manner and each section within the chapters is clearly identified.
The entire manual can be easily downloaded and saved by chapter.
The web page that the manual is located on is easy to read and understand and allows for the ease of access to the manual.
Concerns:
Chapter 10 is a poorly prepared scanned copy of the actual manual and contains areas that are difficult to read.
The manual has little to make it visually appealing and engaging. It is black text on white pages with little else.
Creative Commons:
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