Other DCJS Programs for Juveniles

DCJS offers a variety of programs for juveniles, described briefly below, that are not under the purview of the JJDP Advisory Committee. These programs reside in the Juvenile Services Section and the Virginia Crime Prevention Center. For further information about them, peruse the website or contact the Department at 804.786.4000.

Juvenile Services Section

The DCJS Juvenile Services Section administers several programs for children and juveniles other than those governed by the JJDP Act. Byrne Memorial Fund grants are a response to the increase in juvenile involvement in illegal drug and alcohol activities. Juvenile Accountability and Incentive Block Grants (JAIBG) aim to combat youth violence. Programs for abused and neglected children are aimed at reducing trauma to child victims.

Bureau of Justice Assistance Byrne Memorial Fund Grants
The Byrne Memorial Fund grant program, funded through the Bureau of Justice Assistance Byrne Memorial Funds, has evolved over the years from strictly substance abuse services to now include crime prevention and control. The Juvenile Services Section of DCJS administers only a small portion of the Byrne funds allocated to the Commonwealth. A large portion is awarded for School Resource Officer programs throughout the state and administered by the DCJS Crime Prevention Center. Other Byrne funds are administered by other sections of DCJS. Collaboration among the DCJS units assists in creating a system of program planning and funding opportunities for substance abuse services to juveniles.

Byrne funds administered by Juvenile Services Section have funded training for juvenile justice professionals, and substance abuse treatment and prevention programs. Of the 19 projects funded in FY 1999 that are monitored by the Juvenile Services Section, 13 were to localities and 6 to state agencies. Grants totaled approximately $1,183,000. Eight grants were for community-based substance abuse services for juveniles. One grant, to the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court, is worthy of mention for its state-wide implications for substance abuse. It is designed to increase capacity across the state in the development, implementation, and evaluation of improved sanction and treatment approaches to handling juvenile and adult drug cases.

Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants
The Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant (JAIBG) program was first established in the 1998 federal Appropriations Act. Virginia’s allotment for fiscal year 1999 was $5,095,800. The purposes of the program are to combat violent youth crime through increasing accountability for juvenile criminal offenses, and to promote greater accountability throughout the juvenile justice system.

Programs for Abused and Neglected Children
In FY 1997¹, there were over 12,000 founded cases of child abuse and neglect in Virginia. While this statistic is disquieting of itself, its implications are alarming in the context of the juvenile justice system. It is known that children who are abused and neglected are significantly more likely than other children to commit violent crimes later in life^{2, 3}. The Virginia data discussed earlier in this report show that the incidence of violent crimes and sexual assaults committed by juveniles has increased substantially over the past decade.

The Advisory Committee to the Court Appointed Special Advocate and Children's Justice Act Programs oversees Children's Justice Act and Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program initiatives.

Children's Justice Act Program
The goal of the Children's Justice Act Program is to foster interdisciplinary, interagency collaboration so that child abuse cases can be investigated and prosecuted effectively and with the least possible trauma to child victims. Training and technical assistance provided in local communities by DCJS reached approximately 800 professionals in FY 1999. Seventy-five localities have developed interagency teams to write protocols that clarify professional responsibilities, which ultimately assist in reducing trauma to child victims. A federal Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance grant was obtained through collaboration with the Virginia State Police to provide equipment and technical assistance to local courts to increase the use of closed circuit two-way testimony of child witnesses. DCJS staff also represent child and juvenile justice concerns on the State's Child Fatality Review Team, the Governor's Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the Coalition on Abuse and Disabilities.

Court Appointed Special Advocate Program
The Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program is a child advocacy organization that seeks to provide trained volunteers to speak for abused and neglected children who are the subjects of juvenile court proceedings. The CASA program is funded from the State’s General Assembly, the Victims of Crime Act, local governments, foundations, United Way, and private donations. As of 1999, there were 25 locally operated CASA programs in Virginia. In FY 1999, 979 CASA volunteers served 3,412 children. Those 979 volunteers donated 106,856 hours of work worth almost $2 million.

A CASA volunteer’s duties include investigation of cases for the purpose of providing written independent factual data to the court, monitoring the cases to assure compliance with court orders, assisting any appointed guardian ad litem in representing a child’s needs and best interests, and reporting suspected incidents of child abuse and neglect. CASA programs are initiated, developed, and operated at the local level with regulatory and oversight monitoring by the DCJS Juvenile Services Section.

Virginia Crime Prevention Center

The Virginia Crime Prevention Center, housed at DCJS, serves as a primary focal point for crime prevention activity in the Commonwealth. The Center provides leadership, policy development, training and technical assistance and conducts research on innovative crime prevention methods, ideas, and trends. As research indicates that many of the most effective crime prevention strategies are those directed at youth, the Crime Prevention Center participates in several initiatives directed at this population. Many of these programs involve a substantial number of law enforcement personnel. Examples are summarized below.

School Safety Program
This primary intervention initiative supports local school districts and law enforcement agencies in developing and implementing school safety programs through training, technical assistance, resource development and dissemination and partnership building among state and local agencies and organizations.

School Resource Officers
School Resource Officer (SRO) programs were developed in schools in response to the problem of school violence. An officer assigned to a school serves as a peace officer, counselor and resource teacher. SROs help to prevent violence by targeting high-risk students and introducing those students to a wide variety of intervention strategies including peer group mediation training, conflict resolution training, law-related education classes and a referral network of community resources. As a result, historically, fewer cases are referred to juvenile courts from schools with SROs.

Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program
The Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program (SHOCAP⁴) is a multidisciplinary interagency case management and information sharing system which enables the juvenile and criminal justice system, schools, mental health, and social service agencies to make more informed decisions regarding juveniles who repeatedly commit serious criminal and delinquent acts. Each SHOCAP is required to supervise serious or habitual juvenile offenders in the community as well as those under probation or parole supervision. The goal is to enhance current conduct control, supervision and treatment efforts to provide a more coordinated public safety approach to serious juvenile crime, increase the opportunity for success with juvenile offenders, and assist in the development of early intervention strategies.

McGruff House Program
The 1993 General Assembly authorized the establishment of qualifying residences as McGruff Houses, in which the resident adults may provide temporary refuge to any child in immediate emotional or physical danger or in immediate fear of abuse or neglect.

Notes

¹ This is the most recent information available.

² A recent OJJDP bulletin, Predictors of Youth Violence, April, 2000, summarizes the current research on all predictors. It is available online from the U.S. Dept. of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at http://www.ncjrs.org/jjvict.html.

³ For information specific to the correlation between neglect and abuse and later violent criminal activity see Smith, C., & Thornberry, T. (1995). The relationship between childhood maltreatment and adolescent involvement in delinquency. Criminology, 33, 451-481.

⁴ Established by the General Assembly in the Code of Virginia §16.1-330.1.

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