UBJJ Glossary
Adjudicated juvenile offender: A juvenile who the juvenile court/judge has determined to have committed a criminal-type or status offense.
Adjudication: Judicial determination (judgment) that a juvenile is responsible for the delinquency or status offense that is charged in a petition or other charging document.
Adult jail: A locked facility, administered by State, county, or local law enforcement and correctional agencies designed to detain adults charged with violating criminal law, pending trial. Also, this term refers to facilities used to hold convicted adult criminal offenders sentenced for less than 1 year.
Adult lockup: Generally, a municipal or police facility similar to an adult jail designed to temporarily hold persons before they have been formally charged.
Aftercare: A cohesive set of support services designed to provide assistance to youth returning to their community and/or a new living situation following their release from a secure or nonsecure program, residential placement, or treatment program. Services are designed to assist youth in making a successful transition into the community.
Arrest: Hold time in legal custody, either at the scene of a crime or as a result of investigations. Arrest also can be the result of a complaint filed by a third party, an outstanding warrant, or a revocation of probation or parole.
Assessment: Evaluation or appraisal of a candidate’s suitability for placement in a specific treatment modality/setting and the relationship to custody and supervision. In mental health, an assessment refers to comprehensive information required for the diagnosis of a mental health disorder. An assessment differs from a screening, which is used to determine if an assessment is needed.
Best practice: Strategies and programs demonstrated through research and evaluation to be effective at preventing or intervening in juvenile delinquency. Best practice models include program models that have been shown, through rigorous evaluation and replication, to achieve target outcomes. Model programs can come from many valid sources (e.g., OJJDP’s Model Programs Guide, Blueprints, SAMHSA’s Model Programs, State model program resources, etc.).
Case management: A system of services that include referral, assessment, intervention, problem solving, evaluation, and follow-up.
Case rate: Number of cases disposed per 1,000 juveniles in the population. The population base used to calculate the case rate varies. For example, the population base for the male case rate is the total number of male youth age 10 or older who are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile courts.
Chair: Volunteer leader of a State advisory committee appointed by the governor.
Community assessment center (CAC): An integrated case management system that provides youth with a single 24-hour centralized point of intake and assessment to ensure the provision of appropriate and unduplicated treatment services. CACs use a collaborative approach that leads to more integrated and effective cross-system services for juveniles and their families. CACs are designed to positively influence the lives of youth and divert them from a path of serious, violent, and chronic delinquency.
Community-based: A facility, program, or service located near the juvenile’s home or family, usually a group home or other appropriate setting. Also, this term refers to programs of community supervision and service that maintain community and consumer participation in program planning, operation, and evaluation.
Community service: Work performed by an offender for the benefit of the community. It is justified in a restorative justice perspective as a method of addressing the harm experienced by communities when a crime occurs. However, it can be used instead for retributive purposes or as a means of rehabilitating the offender. What distinguishes its use as a restorative response is the attention given to identifying the particular harm suffered by the community as a result of the offender’s crime, and the effort to ensure that the offender’s community service contributes to repairing that particular harm.
Commitment: A court order giving guardianship of a juvenile to the state department of juvenile justice or corrections. The facility in which a juvenile may be placed may be publicly or privately operated and may range from a secure correctional placement to a non-secure or staff secure facility, group home, foster care, or day treatment setting.
Compliance: In order to receive its full fiscal year allocation of Formula Grants program funds, a state must first demonstrate compliance with DSO, jail removal, separation, and DMC core protections. Compliance with the first three core protections is demonstrated through data provided in the state's annual Compliance Monitoring Report. Compliance with disproportionate minority confinement is determined by information provided in the state's Comprehensive 3-Year Plan and subsequent 3-Year Plan Updates. Full compliance is achieved in each core requirement when:
Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders: a State has removed 100 percent of status offenders and nonoffenders from secure detention and correctional facilities.
Jail Removal: a State demonstrates that the last submitted monitoring report, covering 12 months of actual data, demonstrates that no juveniles were held in adult jails or lockups in circumstances that were in violation of jail removal.
OJJDP has developed de minimis standards for states that have not achieved full compliance with the DSO and jail removal requirements. See the Guidance Manual for Monitoring Facilities under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2002 for further details.
Separation: a State can demonstrate that (a) the last submitted monitoring report, covering a full 12 months of data, demonstrates that no juveniles were incarcerated in circumstances that were in violation of Section 223(a) (12); or (b) the instances of noncompliance reported in the last submitted monitoring report do not indicate a pattern or practice but rather constitute isolated instances.
Disproportionate Minority Contact: A state can demonstrate progress made each year in addressing specific delinquency prevention and system improvement efforts to reduce the rate of contact with the juvenile justice system of a specific minority group, if that rate is significantly greater than the rate of contact for whites or other minority groups.
Compliance Monitoring Report: OJJDP's Formula Grant Regulation requires states to submit information regarding compliance with the DSO, jail removal, and separation requirements annually. This information is submitted through the Compliance Monitoring (CM) report. States that have been determined by the OJJDP Administrator to have achieved full compliance may be exempt from the annual monitoring report requirements following a written request.
Correctional facility: Any public or private residential facility with construction fixtures or staffing models designed to physically restrict the movements and activities of juveniles or other individuals that is used for the placement, after adjudication and disposition, of any juvenile who has been adjudicated as having committed an offense, or of any other individual convicted of a criminal offense.
Court referral: A complaint or petition filed with the juvenile court.
Criminal-type offender: A juvenile offender who has been charged with or adjudicated for conduct that would, under the law of the jurisdiction in which the offense was committed, be a crime if committed by an adult (Compared to Status Offender).
Custody: Juvenile is ordered to stay on the scene, in the car, or in the department facility pending further processing, questioning, or pickup; the juvenile is not free to leave.
Deinstitutionalization of status offenders (DSO): A JJDP Act core protection that prohibits juveniles who have been accused or adjudicated for an act that would not be a crime if committed by an adult (status offenders), or juveniles not charged with an offense and who are dependent or neglected children (non-offenders), or alien juveniles to be detained or confined in secure detention or secure correctional facilities.
Delinquency: An act committed by a juvenile that would be criminal if committed by an adult. The juvenile court has jurisdiction over delinquent acts. Delinquent acts include crimes against persons, crimes against property, drug offenses, and crimes against public order.
Delinquent offender: Same as Criminal-Type Offender. May also be a Status Offender who has been charged with a violation of a court order.
Detention: The placement of a youth in a secure facility under court authority at some point between the time of referral to court intake and case disposition. Detention prior to case disposition is known as pre-dispositional detention. Detention after sentencing is known as post-dispositional detention. The reasons for post-dispositional detention generally include awaiting placement, short-term sentencing to detention, or being a danger to self or others.
Detention facility: A secure pre-dispositional/post-dispositional public or private facility (local or regional) with construction fixtures or staffing models designed to physically restrict the movements and activities of juveniles or other individuals that is used for the placement, after adjudication and disposition, of any juvenile who has been adjudicated as having committed an offense, or of any other individual convicted of a criminal offense. There are generally three types of detention centers: local, regional, and State. Local facilities are owned and operated by one local political jurisdiction. Regional facilities are owned and operated jointly by more than one local political jurisdiction. These facilities are eligible to receive youth from each member jurisdiction. State facilities are owned and operated by a State agency. These facilities are eligible to receive youth from designated (or all) localities within the State.
Discretionary funds: Grants that OJJDP makes directly to individuals or agencies to provide specific juvenile justice services.
Disposition: Sanction ordered or treatment plan decided upon or initiated in a particular case by a juvenile court. The range of options available to a court typically includes commitment to an institution; placement in a group or foster home or other residential facility; probation (either regular or intensive supervision); referral to an outside agency, day treatment, or mental health program; or imposition of a fine, community service, or restitution.
Disproportionate minority contact (DMC): A JJDP Act core protection that directs States to address juvenile delinquency prevention efforts and system improvement efforts designed to reduce, without establishing or requiring numerical standards or quotas, the disproportionate number of juvenile members of minority groups who come into contact with the juvenile justice system.
Diversion: A mechanism designed to hold youth accountable for their actions by sanctioning behavior and in some cases securing services, but at the same time generally avoiding formal court processing in the juvenile justice system.
Return to top of pageFormal petition filed: A case that is being forwarded for judicial resolution and is a much smaller number than the number of cases coming through the intake process.
Formula Grants: The Formula Grants Program, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, provides grant monies to States and territories that support State and local delinquency prevention and intervention efforts and juvenile justice system improvements. Juvenile Justice Specialists in each State administer the funding through subgrants to units of local government, local private agencies, and Indian tribes for programs in accordance with legislative requirements.
Gang (youth gang): A youth gang is commonly thought of as a self-formed association of peers having the following characteristics: three or more members, generally ages 12 to 24; a gang name and some sense of identity, generally indicated by symbols such as clothing style, graffiti, and hand signs; some degree of permanence and organization; and an elevated level of involvement in delinquent or criminal activity.
Gender-specific services: Services designed to promote healthy attitudes, behaviors and lifestyles, and promote social competence in girls. Key program elements generally address issues in the context of relationships to peers, family, school, and community.
Goals: Broad statements (i.e., written in general terms) that convey a program’s overall intent to change, reduce, or eliminate the problem described. Goals identify the program’s intended short- and long-term results.
Graduated sanctions: A graduated sanctions system is a set of integrated intervention strategies designed to operate in unison to enhance accountability, ensure public safety, and reduce recidivism by preventing future delinquent behavior. The term graduated sanctions implies that the penalties for delinquent activity should move from limited interventions to more restrictive (i.e., graduated) penalties according to the severity and nature of the crime. In other words, youth who commit serious and violent offenses should receive more restrictive sentences than youth who commit less serious offenses.
Grant: An award of financial assistance the principal purpose of which is to transfer a thing of value from a Federal or State agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States (see 31 U.S.C. 6101(3)). A grant is distinguished from a contact, which is used to acquire property or services for the Federal Government's direct benefit or use.
Individual level performance measures: Indicators that provide information about the actual changes, or lack thereof, in the target individual or group of individuals (e.g., youth who reoffend) that are directly related to a program's goals and objectives.
Intake decision:The decision made by juvenile court intake that results in a case being handled informally at the intake level or petitioned and scheduled for an adjudicatory or transfer hearing.
Jail removal: A JJDP Act core protection that prohibits juveniles from being detained or confined in any jail or lockup for adults.
Juvenile: Youth at or below the upper age of original juvenile court jurisdiction, which varies depending on the State (e.g., the age is 15 in some States, and 17 in others).
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act: Congress enacted the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act (P. L. No. 93-415, 42 U.S.C. § 5601 et seq.) in 1974 and reauthorized the majority of its provisions in 2002. The JJDP Act mandates that states comply with four core protections to participate in the JJDP Act’s Formula Grants program. This landmark legislation established OJJDP to support local and state efforts to prevent delinquency and improve the juvenile justice system.
Length of stay: The length of time that a juvenile stays in service or placement (in days). The length of stay (LOS) is a critical ingredient in projections of juvenile custody populations. A corrections or detention population can change dramatically if a facility’s LOS begins to change, even if admissions are stable. The LOS is calculated by counting the number of days from the start date to the end date and calculating each person’s LOS for a given time period. LOS is usually calculated on those youth who end a service/placement during the reporting period. The LOS total is divided by the number of stays to produce the average LOS.
Long-term outcomes: The ultimate outcomes desired for participants, recipients, the juvenile justice system, or the community. For direct service programs, they generally include changes in recipients' behavior, attitudes, skills, and knowledge. They also include changes in practice, policy, or decision-making in the juvenile justice system. They are measured within 6-12 months after a youth leaves the program. They should relate back to the program's goals (e.g., reducing delinquency).
Memorandum of understanding: An interagency agreement whose purpose is to enable all parties to facilitate the conduct of certain efforts of mutual interest. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) may be signed, for example, between a police department and a school system, which would specify the types of information to be shared, state the terms of the agreement, and include the signatures of all parties to the agreement.
Mentoring: A process in which the mentor serves as a role model, trusted counselor, or teacher who provides opportunities for development, growth, and support to less experienced individuals. In career mentoring, for example, individuals receive career-related information, encouragement, and advice.
Needs assessment: Systematic process to acquire an accurate, thorough picture of a youth’s strengths and areas of vulnerability. The process is utilized to identify and prioritize treatment goals, develop a treatment plan, determine the appropriate level of supervision, and allocate funds and resources for services.
Net widening: When new programs are created, they often target participants who would have been placed in more severe/secure program/placements. Net widening is said to have occurred when this target population is not reached but instead offenders who would have been placed in less severe/secure placement are selected.
Non-offender: A juvenile who is subject to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court usually under abuse, dependency, or neglect statutes for reasons other than legally prohibited conduct.
Objectives: Are derived from the program goals and explain how the programs goals will be accomplished. Objectives are well-defined, specific, quantifiable statements of the program’s desired results and they should include the target level of accomplishment, thereby further defining goals and providing the means to measure program performance.
OJJDP liaison: OJJDP State Relations Assistance Division representative assigned to assist the state in its JJDPA compliance programs.
Parole: A conditional release from imprisonment that entitles the person to serve the remainder of the sentence outside the correctional institution as long as the terms of the release are not violated.
Performance measures/performance indicators: Particular values used to measure program outputs or outcomes. They represent the data/information that will be collected at the program level to measure the specific outputs and outcomes a program is designed to achieve. Therefore, they must be developed for each program objective. There are two types of performance indicators:
Output indicators measure the products of a program’s implementation or activities. They are generally measured in terms of the volume of work accomplished, such as amount of service delivered, staff hired, systems developed, sessions conducted, materials developed, policies, procedures, and/or legislation created. Examples include number of juveniles served, number of hours of service provided to participants, number of staff trained, number of detention beds added, number of materials distributed, number of reports written, and number of site visits conducted. They may also be referred to as process measures.
Outcome indicators measure the benefits or changes for individuals, the juvenile justice system, or the community as a result of the program. Outcomes may be related to behavior, attitudes, skills, knowledge, values, conditions, or other attributes. Examples are changes in the academic performance of program participants, changes in the recidivism rate of program participants, changes in client satisfaction level, changes in the conditions of confinement in detention, and changes in the county-level juvenile crime rate. There are two levels of outcomes:
Short-term outcomes are the benefits or changes that participants experience that by the time a youth complete his or her involvement with the program. For direct service programs, they generally include changes in recipients' behavior, attitudes, skills, and knowledge. For programs designed to change the juvenile justice system, they include changes to the juvenile justice system that occur by the end of the funding.
Long-term outcomes are the ultimate outcomes desired for participants, recipients, the juvenile justice system, or the community. For direct service programs, they generally include changes in recipients' behavior, attitudes, skills, and knowledge. They also include changes in practice, policy, or decision-making in the juvenile justice system. They are measured within 6-12 months after a youth leaves the program. They should relate back to the program's goals (e.g., reducing delinquency).
Permanency plan: A proposal by the juvenile justice system and other youth-serving agencies to establish a permanent placement for youth in foster care. The goal of the permanency plan is to expeditiously secure a safe, permanent placement for every maltreated child, either by making it possible for children to return to their own families or by finding safe adoptive homes for them.
Post-disposition: The period following the imposition of a sanction ordered or treatment plan decided upon or initiated in a particular case by a juvenile court.
Pre-disposition: The period after the filing of a charge and prior to a sanction ordered or treatment plan decided upon or initiated in a particular case by a juvenile court.
Private agency: A non-profit agency or organization that provides program services to juvenile offenders within an identifiable unit or a combination of units of general local government.
Probation: Cases in which youth are placed on informal/voluntary or formal/court- ordered supervision. A violation occurs when a youth violates the terms of the probation.
Public agency: Any state, unit of local government, combination of such states or units, or any department, agency, or instrumentality of any of the foregoing.
Relative Rate Index (RRI): The RRI measures the level of disproportionate minority contact in a system by comparing the percentage of minority youth at each stage of the juvenile justice system to the percentage of minorities at the previous stage.
Reoffend: A measure of recidivism that counts the number of youth who were rearrested or seen at juvenile court (intake) for a new delinquent offense. While there is no commonly accepted measure of recidivism, it is generally measured at one of four access points in the juvenile justice process: arrest, intake, adjudication or incarceration.
This measure of reoffending applies to youth at either of the first two access points. Both of these measures have many advantages, but each also has disadvantages. An arrest may identify youth who were later released by the police, the charges dismissed by the courts or found not guilty at an adjudication hearing. On the other hand, an intake can over represent the number of youth brought before the court more so than arrest because cases can be referred to court intake by a number of sources besides law enforcement agencies. Nevertheless, arrest and intake are used here in order to provide flexibility to the user.
Residential placement: Cases in which youth are placed in a residential correctional or treatment facility, or cases in which youth are otherwise removed from their homes and housed out of home. Residential placements can include secure confinement, residential treatment facilities, nonsecure confinement, group homes, foster care, shelter care, etc.
Restitution: In its traditional sense, restitution has been defined as “a monetary payment by the offender to the victim for the harm reasonably resulting from the offense.”
Rural area: An area located outside a metropolitan statistical area as designated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Screening: A process designed to determine if informal or formal processing is warranted. In the mental health setting, screening refers to an initial look at a juvenile’s mental health needs. This is contrasted with an assessment to diagnose a mental health disorder, which would occur after screening.
Secure: As used to define a detention or correctional facility this term includes residential and non-residential facilities that include fixtures, such as locked rooms and building, fences, or other physical structures, designed to physically restrict the movements and activities of persons in custody. It does not include facilities where physical restriction of movement or activities is provided solely through facility staff.
Secure correctional facility: Any public or private residential facility that –
(A) includes fixtures designed to physically restrict the movements and activities of juveniles or other individuals held in lawful custody; and
(B) is used for the placement, after adjudication and disposition, of any juvenile who has been adjudicated as having committed an offense, any non-offender, or any other individual convicted of a criminal offense.
Separation: Practice and/or requirement of keeping adults in custody completely apart from juveniles in custody.
Serious crime: Criminal homicide, forcible rape or other sex offenses punishable as a felony, mayhem, kidnapping, aggravated assault, robbery, larceny or theft punishable as a felony, motor vehicle theft, burglary or breaking and entering, extortion accompanied by threats of violence, and arson punishable as a felony.
Short-term outcomes: The benefits or changes that participants experience that by the time a youth complete his or her involvement with the program. For direct service programs, they generally include changes in recipients' behavior, attitudes, skills, and knowledge. For programs designed to change the juvenile justice system, they include changes to the juvenile justice system that occur by the end of the funding.
Sight and sound separation: A JJDP Act core protection that prohibits juveniles who are alleged to be found to be delinquent (including status offenders and non-offenders) from being detained or confined in any institution in which they might have contact with incarcerated adults.
State: Any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
State Advisory Group (SAG): A group of professionals in the juvenile justice field that volunteer to monitor and supervise the funding and programming of Formula Grants made to the States by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. SAGs must be composed of 15 to 33 members appointed by the governor. One-fifth of the members must be younger than 24 years old when appointed. Three members must have been or must be currently under the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system. In addition, a majority of the members (including the chairperson) must not be full-time government employees.
Status offender: A juvenile charged with or adjudicated for conduct that would not, under the law of the jurisdiction in which the offense was committed, be a crime if committed by an adult. Status offenses include truancy, curfew violations, incorrigibility, runaway, and underage possession and/or consumption of alcohol or tobacco.
Substance use and abuse: Use and abuse of substances including, but not limited to, illegal drugs (e.g., heroin), prescription and nonprescription drugs, and alcohol. Sometimes referred to as alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and abuse.
Supervision (youth supervision): Mechanisms for managing or overseeing the performance or activities of a person or group. In the context of juvenile justice, examples of supervision include probation, youth supervision orders, youth training centers, and parole orders.
Supervision meeting: A meeting between a youth and the person designated by the juvenile justice system to supervise that youth for the purpose of monitoring the youth’s progress towards fulfilling their justice requirements. Supervisors can include probation and parole officers, judges, and case managers, among others.
System level performance measures: Indicators that provide information about the actual changes, or lack thereof, in the target system (e.g., court system, school system, or program as a whole) that are directly related to a program's goals and objectives.
Targeted behavior: Any behavior-related problems (e.g., aggression, substance abuse) that a program is designed to modify through appropriate interventions.
Three-year plan: A document detailing a 3 year juvenile justice and delinquency prevention plan that States submit to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in order to receive Formula Grant funds.
Title V: The Title V Community Prevention Grants Program is a Federal grants program to fund collaborative, community-based delinquency prevention efforts. The program provides communities with funding and a guiding framework for developing and implementing comprehensive juvenile delinquency prevention plans.
Treatment: Includes, but is not limited to, medical, educational, special education, social, psychological, and vocational services, corrective and preventive guidance and training, and other rehabilitative services designed to protect the public.
Type 1 crimes: Classification used by the FBI, traditionally used as a measure of serious crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Also referred to as index crimes.
Unit of general local government: Any city, county, township, town, borough, parish, village, or other general purpose political subdivision of a state and Indian tribe that performs law enforcement functions as determined by the Secretary of the Interior or for the purpose of assistance eligibility, any agency of the District of Columbia government performing law enforcement functions in and for the District of Columbia and funds appropriated by the Congress for the activities of such agency may be used to provide the non-federal shares of the cost of programs or projects funded under the JJDP Act.
Valid court order: An order given by a juvenile court judge to a juvenile who was brought before the court and made subject to an order; and who received, before the issuance of such order, the full due process rights guaranteed to such juvenile by the Constitution of the United States.
Valid court order exception: A court order given by a juvenile court judge to a juvenile who has been brought before the court and made subject to a court order. The word “valid” permits detaining the juvenile in secure custody for violation of a court order only if he or she received full due process as guaranteed by the Constitution.
Waived to criminal court: Cases transferred to criminal court as the result of a judicial waiver hearing in juvenile court.
Youth advocacy: Activities focused on improving services for and protecting the rights of youth affected by the juvenile justice system.
Location
Agency hours: 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday.
State Capitol Complex
Senate Building Suite 330
PO Box 142330
SLC UT 84114-2330
Office: 801-538-1031
Fax: 801-538-1024