By Alvin W. Cohn, D.Crim.
President, Administration of Justice Services, Inc.

Teen Sexual Activity

Teen birthrates continued their 15-year decline in 2005 as adolescents increasingly used condoms during sexual intercourse, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Since the late 1990s, however, the number of children born to unmarried women in their 20s rose significantly, resulting in an overall increase in the birthrates of unmarried women. According to researchers, one of the most dramatic increases involved condom use by high school students—with 63 percent reporting using that protection during their last sexual encounter, compared with 46 percent in 1991. During that same time, the percentage of girls who said they used birth control pills remained about the same. About 47 percent of high school students— 4.6 million teens—reported having had sexual intercourse in 2005, down from 54 percent in 1991.

Other data:

• More young people were arrested for serious violent crime in 2005 than in each of the previous three years. The arrest rate of 17 crimes per 1,000 juveniles, however, remained significantly below the peak rate of 52 per 1,000 in 1993.
• More young people are completing high school—88 percent in 2005, compared with 84 percent in 1980.
• The percentage of children covered by health insurance decreased slightly from 90 percent in 2004 to 89 percent in 2005.
• The percentage of infants born weighing less than five pounds, eight ounces increased from 8.1 percent in 2004 to 8.2 percent in 2005.

Fatal Injuries Among Children

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published the report “Fatal Injuries Among Children by Race and Ethnicity—United States, 1999–2002.” The report analyzes data for fatal injuries among children by race and ethnicity and compares disparities in rates by race during 1999-2002 with disparities in the 1980s and 1990s. See http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/disparities_childhood_injury.htm.

Fitness for Kids Resources

bam.gov This child-geared health Web site from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lets kids play games, take quizzes, and make their own fitness calendars.

kidnetic.com Find game ideas, recipes, and advice for parents and kids on living a healthy life style.

kidshealth.org Browse nutrition- and healthrelated articles and tips for parents. Special sections for kids and teens teach them about their bodies through interactive games.

my-gym.com Find locations for this kids’ gym chain offering specialized classes by age group, from 3 to 13.

verbnow.com Aimed at getting tweens to play outside, the site offers jokes and videos to promote health.

ymca.net Locate the nearest YMCA to find a variety of kids’ fitness classes.

Trying Youth as Adults

A recent report from the Justice Policy Institute discusses the consequences of widespread policies that place increasing numbers of minors in the adult justice system. According to the report, The Consequences Aren’t Minor: The Impact of Trying Youths as Adults and Strategies for Reform, an estimated 200,000 youth enter the adult criminal justice system each year. The trend to move more juvenile cases into adult court is attributable to policies enacted over the past few decades in response to fears of a coming juvenile crime wave. Although the predicted wave of “superpredators” never materialized, most of these new policies that facilitated transfer to adult court remain in place. Most states now place the decision to transfer a case to adult court in the hands of the prosecutor, rather than the judge. Other states lowered the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to 17, 16, or even 15. Most states allow, or even require, juveniles charged as adults to be held in adult jails while awaiting trial. It is estimated that more than 2,000 minors are being held in adult jails on any given day. See www.campaig4youthjustice.org.

According to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, by more than a 15-to-1 margin (92 percent to six percent), those polled agree that the decision to transfer youth to adult court should be made on a case-by-case basis by a judge, rather than by a blanket policy requiring transfer. See www.nccdcrc.org/nccd/pubs/zogby_feb07.pdf.

Sick Infants

Thousands of sickly newborns could be saved each year if officials closed some of the nation’s smaller neonatal intensive case units, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study suggests that larger hospitals are better able to treat these infants. Extremely premature babies were up to twice as likely to survive when treated at a busy, advanced-care center instead of one of the many community hospitals that have opened ICUs in recent years. Even among the most advanced centers, those that handled the most babies had the best survival records. Earlier studies found conflicting results when reviewing the relationship between newborn deaths and number of infants treated by hospital. The study reviewed nearly 48,000 premature births and fetal deaths in California from 1991 through 2000, using birth and death certificates and hospital records.

Preventing Child Abuse

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published “Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures.” Designed to assist youth service organizations in adopting strategies to prevent child sexual abuse, this guide identifies six key components of child abuse prevention and describes goals and strategies for each. See http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/PreventingChildSexualAbuse.pdf.

Missing and Exploited Children

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) announces the availability of “Federal Resources on Missing and Exploited Children: A Directory for Law Enforcement and Other Public and Private Agencies.” Developed by the Federal Agency Task Force for Missing and Exploited Children, the directory, currently in its fifth edition, describes federal services, programs, publications, and training sessions that address child sexual exploitation issues, child pornography, child abduction, Internet crime, and missing children cases. See http:// ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/publications/PubAbstract.asp?pubi=238478.

For descriptions of these and other publications pertaining to missing and exploited children, including links to full-text files, visit ojjdp.ncjrs.org/publications/PubSearch. asp. Unless otherwise noted, all publications may also be ordered from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at 800–638–8736, 410–792– 4358 (fax), and online at puborder.ncjrs.org.

Abducted Children

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) announces the availability of “What About Me? Coping With the Abduction of a Brother or Sister.” Written by siblings of abducted children, this guide contains information to help children of all ages when their brother or sister has been kidnapped. Written in child-friendly language, it provides such children with insights into what they might expect to feel following the abduction, related events that may ensue, and steps that they may take to cope with their feelings. See (NCJ 217714) http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/publications/PubAbstract.asp?pubi=239397.

APPA Community Service Project Renamed in Honor of Dennis Maloney

In February, 2007 the community corrections family lost a leader in the field of community justice with the passing of Dennis Maloney. Dennis’ gentle but firm persuasiveness led us to embrace the restoration of the community via victim services and offender programming. To honor his legacy, the American Probation and Parole Association has renamed their community service project the Dennis Maloney Community Service Project. At each APPA Winter and Annual Training Institute, APPA works with local volunteers to help a charity in the host city. This is APPA’s way of giving something back to the community and giving national recognition to some of the wonderful community outreach work being done locally.

From SAMHSA

Girls Enter Treatment Younger, Use Different Drugs—Teenage girls tend to enter addiction treatment at a younger age than boys and are more likely to be primary users of alcohol or inhalants, whereas boys are most likely to report that marijuana is their favorite drug.

Crystal methamphetamine

Use of crystal meth among young adults in the United States is considerably higher than previous surveys indicated, according to new research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study, published in a recent issue of the journal Addiction, found 2.8 percent of young adults (ages 18-26) reported the use of crystal methamphetamine in the past year during 2001-2002. This is higher than the annual prevalence of crystal methamphetamine use by young adults (ages 19-28) of 1.4 percent reported by NIDA’s 2002 Monitoring the Future Survey. Previous national surveys indicate that methamphetamine prevalence is highest among young adults, but until now, few scientific papers have looked at the characteristics and behaviors associated with its use in this age group. Using nationally representative data, and examining the age group most prone to methamphetamine use (ages 18-26), the study found that young adult users are disproportionately white and male and live in the West, and that the odds of use for Native Americans were 4.2 times higher than that for whites. Users also tend to have lower social economic status and use other substances, such as alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine; the male users are more likely to have had incarcerated fathers. “This new information gives us a clearer picture of use among young adults, and also raises new concerns,” said NIH Director Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni. “Use of crystal methamphetamine is associated with multiple health and social risks, including a negative impact on families as well as straining emergency departments and law enforcement resources.” “The study showed not only greater use of crystal methamphetamine, it also suggests the drug is associated with risky and antisocial behaviors, including other illicit drug use,” said NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. “By examining these connections, we hope to identify new avenues for treatment and prevention.”

The study authors based their findings on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which asked respondents about their use of crystal methamphetamine in the past year and past 30 days. They examined certain characteristics of crystal methamphetamine users, such as their use of other substances, sociodemographics, and novelty-seeking behavior. They also looked at what was unique about crystal methamphetamine users compared to other drug users, and the associations between past-year crystal methamphetamine use and antisocial or risk behaviors, such as crime/violence and risky sexual behavior. To maintain confidentiality, Add Health administered questionnaires via laptop computer using computer-assisted self-interviewing (CASI) technology.

Methamphetamine

The California Department of Alcohol and Drugs has just published an 84-page methamphetamine treatment guide available online in pdf format. It includes a section on special populations. See http://www.adp.ca.gov/Meth/pdf/MethTreatmentGuide.pdf.

Motivating Offenders to Change: A Guide for Probation and Parole

This publication provides probation and parole officers and other correctional professionals with both a solid grounding in the principles behind MI [motivational interviewing] and a practical guide for applying these principles in their everyday dealings with offenders. Seven chapters are contained in this guide: how MI fits in with evidence based practice; how and why people change; the motivational interviewing style; preparing for change; building motivation for change; navigating through tough times—working with deception, violations, and sanctions; and from start to finish—putting MI into practice. See NCJRS/National Institute of Corrections Accession Number: 022253.

Mental Health Screens for Corrections

…reports on two projects to create and validate mental health screening instruments that corrections staff can use during intake. The researchers created short questionnaires that accurately identify inmates who require mental health interventions. One mental health screen was found to be effective for men and is being adapted for women; the other has effective versions for both men and women. The screening instruments are reproduced in the appendices. Full text of the Report: Adobe Acrobat Files.

Statistical Briefing Book (SBB)

This online publication has been designed to help readers easily find basic statistical information on juvenile offending, victimization of juveniles, and involvement of youth in the juvenile justice system. The SBB offers:

• More ways to access information: by topical area (left menu) and type of information (top menu).
• Links to National Data Sets and Other Resources.
• The latest edition of Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report is now available online. The 260-page report offers comprehensive statistics on juvenile offending, victimization of juveniles, and the justice system’s response to these problems. It presents data in easy-to-read tables, graphs, and maps, narrated by clear, non-technical analysis.
• Enhanced access to online statistical publications from OJJDP.

Recent Updates in SBB:

• New Frequently Asked Questions about Juvenile Suicides have been added to the Juveniles as Victims section.
• A new Data Analysis Tool has been added! Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement provides access to national data on the characteristics of youth held in residential placement facilities, including detailed information about the youth’s age, sex, race/ethnicity, placement status, length of stay, and most serious offense. This application includes data from 1997 to 2003. (March 2007)
• Updates to Frequently Asked Questions have been made to several sections of this site. Law Enforcement and Juvenile Crime has been updated to 2005, Juveniles in Court has been updated to 2004, and Juveniles on Probation has been updated to 2004. (March 2007)
• Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics provides access to data on juvenile court processing of more than 30 million delinquency cases, including information on the age, sex, and race of juveniles involved, and the use of detention, adjudication and disposition. This application has been updated to include data from 1985 to 2004. (March 2007)

Underage Drinking Laws

This section of the APIS Web site provides state-by-state summaries of laws and regulations related to underage drinking and access to alcohol. For each state, summaries are provided for 11 policy topics that are particularly relevant to underage drinking. To view the summary for a given jurisdiction, click on the appropriate part of the map or select a jurisdiction from the drop-down menu. The APIS Policy Topics section of this Web site presents additional detailed information on these and other policy topics. Each policy topic provides a description, a summary of relevant federal law, interactive comparison tables showing policies in effect on a user-specified date or changes over time, explanatory notes and limitations, and definitions and selected references as appropriate. The APIS Highlight on Underage Drinking provides an overview of underage drinking policy in the United States and other material that may be helpful in understanding the policy topics presented in the these state profiles. In addition, maps and charts for all of these policy topics are collected on a single page to provide a more comprehensive graphical overview of underage policies.

Law Enforcement View of Juvenile Crime

For most delinquents, law enforcement is the doorway to the juvenile justice system. Law enforcement agencies track the characteristics and volume of crimes and use this information to monitor changing levels of crime. “Juvenile Offenders and Victims 2006 National Report” provides an overview of juvenile crime from law enforcement’s perspective. See http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/ojstatbb/nr2006/downloads/chapter5.pdf. or http:// ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/publications/PubAbstract.asp?pubi=234394.

Conditions of Supervision and Workload Allocation

Probation agencies are experiencing a rather challenging predicament regarding how best to contribute to community safety by supervising offenders in the community. How can probation officer time be spent most efficiently to reduce recidivism? A significant issue in making such decisions is understanding how caseloads (i.e., number of offenders supervised per officer) translate into workload (i.e., the amount of time required to supervise offenders). Follow this link to read the APPA report, Probation’s Growing Caseloads and Workload Allocation: Strategies for Managerial Decision Making funded by a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (2006-DD-BX-K023).

Missing and Exploited Children

This directory of law enforcement agencies and the Federal Agency Task Force for Missing and Exploited Children describes the federal services, programs, publications, and training sessions that address child sexual exploitation issues, child pornography, child abduction, Internet crime, and missing children cases (NCJ 216857). The development of this directory was coordinated by the Federal Agency Task Force for Missing and Exploited Children, which was established in 1995 to serve as an advocate for children, to coordinate federal services and resources, and to promote cooperation and collaboration. The Task Force includes representatives from 16 federal agencies and two private agencies that work directly with cases that involve missing, abducted, and exploited children and their families.

Childhood Injuries

Xbox finger and childhood obesity may be the risks of couch surfing one’s indoor childhood away, but boys (and girls) still do manage to do some damage to themselves, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. (Table 1.)

Child Support 2006 Statistics

• $24 billion in child support collections (4 percent increase over FY 2005)
• 1.7 million paternities established or acknowledged (3.8 percent increase over FY 2005 caseload had orders established (1.2 million child support orders were established)
• 9.66 million cases had orders being processed (excluding arrears-only cases)
• 7.04 million contained medical support orders
• 1.9 million cases in which medical support was ordered and provided. See www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pubs.

Additionally, the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) has published three new reports in its Story Behind Numbers series, including The Impact of Nonmarital Birth Data on the Child Support Enforcement Program’s Performance; Impact of Modification Thresholds on Review and Adjustment of Child Support Orders; and Effects of Child Support Order Amounts on Payments by Low-Income Parents. See www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse—then click on Information Memoranda (IM-07-04).

Newborn Defects

Prospective mothers can lower the risk of heart defects in their babies by getting rubella and flu shots, taking vitamins, and being tested for diabetes before they are pregnant, the American Heart Association said in new guidelines. Once pregnant, a woman should continue taking a vitamin containing folic acid every day, advise her doctor about all of the medications she takes, and avoid people with the flu and other fever-related illnesses. The guidelines are the first to suggest that a woman’s lifestyle both before and during pregnancy affect whether a baby is born with congenital heart defects, which occur in nine out of 1,000 U.S. babies.

Firstborns and IQs

Researchers have debated for a century whether, as IQ scores suggest, firstborn and only children are really smarter than those who come along later, but a study from Norway now indicates that what matters is not so much being born first as growing up the senior child—at least for boys. Researchers report that what counts is what they call social rank in the family. The highest scores were racked up by the senior child—the firstborn or, if the firstborn had died in infancy, the next oldest. The findings were based on IQ test results of 241,310 Norwegian men drafted into the armed forces between 1967 and 1976. All were 18 or 19 years old at the time.

Newborns and Fungal Infections

Babies born prematurely often develop yeastlike fungal infections in part because their immune systems are not fully developed. In a study that randomly assigned 322 pre-term babies, weighing 3.3 pounds or less, they were given either fluconazole or a placebo until they were about one month old. During this time, lab cultures confirmed the development of fungal colonies in about 9 percent of the babies given the drug and 29 percent of the others. Full-fledged fungal infections were diagnoses in about three percent of the babies taking the drug and 13 percent of the others. See www.marchofdimes.com or www.kidshealth.org (click “parents” and then search for “premature.”)

Underweight Babies

University of Michigan researchers tracked 12,874 people born between 1951 and 1975 for as long as 40 years; eight percent of them weighed less than 5.5 pounds at birth. The study showed that a large part of an individual’s struggle for health and wealth is decided in the womb, or even earlier. While previous studies have shown a link between low birth weight and difficulties later in life, this is the first comprehensive study to control for genetic factors other than those affecting birth weight. Underweight babies consistently reported poorer health and less financial success than their normal-weight siblings. Low birth weight has been tied to delays in cognitive development, possibly explaining later problems.

Teen Pressure

Twenty-one percent of mothers are concerned that their kids are being pushed by peers to do poorly in school. But, in fact, that’s true for only two percent of kids. Sixty percent of kids actually are being encouraged by their peers to do well in school. Other data: More teens report pressure to engage in risky behavior than tweens: (table 2).

Kid Data—

• 6 percent of tweens, which translates into more than 100,000, have their own blog.
• 38 percent of girls 13 to 17 have a blog, versus only 17 percent of boys.
• Only 20 percent of all kids who went online went there for schoolwork.
• prefer talking to someone, especially parents, face-to-face.
• 34 percent of kids wish their parents wouldn’t get mad at them so much.
• 19 percent of kids fear they will be beaten or attacked.
• 73 percent of kids say they are happy almost all or most of the time.
• 79 percent of kids were happy in school last year.
• Less than 10 percent of kids say their teachers are the best part of school.

Home Schooling

25 years ago it was illegal in many states for parents without teaching licenses to educate their children at home. But the number has grown as state regulations have eased. More than one million students—about two percent of the school-age population—were home-schooled in 2003, according to the Education Department. In 1994, there were 35,000 home-schooled and in 1999, the number approached 80,000.

U.S. Prison Population

U.S. prisons and jails added more than 42,000 inmates last year, the largest increase since 2000, the Bureau of Justice statistics reported. The total number of people incarcerated by federal or state authorities in the year ending June 30, 2006 was roughly 1.6 million, up 2.8 percent from 2005. The increase was attributed to people being put in prison at a faster rate than those being released. When local jail populations are included, the total number of people jailed is about 2.2 million. Nearly six out of 10 incarcerated were black or Hispanic.

Teen Drivers

According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm, teen drivers responsible for paying at least some:

Gas	53 Percent
Driving/Parking Tickets	41 Percent
Vehicle Damage/Repairs	29 Percent
Vehicle Maintenance	27 Percent
Car Insurance	20 Percent

 

Part-Time Students

Thirty-five percent of undergraduates attended college exclusively part-time in 2003-04 and they are more likely to be older and female, come from minority or low-income backgrounds, be less prepared academically, and attend community college or non-degree programs, reports the Department of Education. The report finds that undergraduates who attend college full-time exclusively are more likely to attain degrees.

Student Debt

According to the College Board, bachelor’s degree recipients from for-profit schools had the highest median student-debt levels. Median level of debt by degree and institution in 2003-04:

Associate for-profit school	$16,100
Associate public school	$6,100
Bachelor for-profit school	$24,600
Bachelor 4-year public	$15,500
Bachelor, 4-year, private, non-profit	$19,500
Median debt of bachelor degree recipients	$19,300

 

Status Offender DVD

Recently, OJJDP, in conjunction with the American Bar Association’s Commission on Youth at Risk and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Family and Youth Services Bureau, aired the national videoconference “Addressing the Needs of Juvenile Status Offenders and Their Families.” Now available on DVD, the videoconference (NCJ 216888) highlights programs, practices, and policies that have shown promise in intervening with status offenders to prevent further offending, support their families, and guide them towards a positive future. DVDs of this videoconference may be ordered at http://ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/AlphaList.aspx. For quick access, search by the NCJ number indicated above.

Mothers and Antidepressants—Women who become pregnant while taking antidepressants must balance the risk to themselves if they stop the medication against potential harm to their babies if they don’t. A study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 15,709 infants, 9,849 of them born with a birth defect. Overall, a baby was no more likely to have been born with an abnormality (such as a heart defect, abdominal protrusion, or premature skull fusion) if during early pregnancy the mother had taken antidepressants (specifically SSRIs, selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors) than if she had not. Further analysis found that the use of certain SSRIs was associated with some increase in the risk of specific rare birth defects, but the number of cases was minimal. See www.marchofdimes.com and www.cdc.gov/ncbddd.

Breakthrough Schools

Research has demonstrated that schools have to change to align with current realities. This can be done, according to the National Association of Secondary School Principals, by taking a closer look at what’s happening in institutions that researchers have called “Breakthrough Schools.” These are schools serving high minority student populations, with high numbers of students receiving free and reduced-price lunches. Led by reformminded leadership, they have been successful in fostering high expectations and student achievement. And, most notably, a remarkable number of their students are not only graduating but also furthering their education beyond high school. These schools have in common:

• Strong leadership and vision by the school principal
• Focus on student achievement and academic rigor
• Articulated high expectations including “college for all”
• Relevance and personalization so students visualize continuing their education
• Emphasis on reading, writing, literacy, inquiry, and collaboration
• In-school academic support along with a safe and caring environment
• Flexibility and extra time (beyond four years) to master course work
• Strong home-school connections
• Opportunities to earn tuition-free college credits

See Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform at www.nassp.org.

Status Offender DVD

OJJDP, the American Bar Association Youth at Risk Commission, the ABA Center on Children and the Law, the Family and Youth Services Bureau, Administration for Children and Families (ACYF), and the Department of Health and Human Services sponsored a video conference on status offenders. The program was aimed at policy-makers and juvenile justice, child welfare, social service, and other youth-serving agencies. DVD copies of Addressing the Needs of Juvenile Status Offenders and Their Families can be found at http://www.ncjrs.gov/app/publications/alphaList.aspx. Search by document number 216888.

Juvenile Court Case Flow

Law enforcement agencies refer approximately two-thirds of all arrested youth to a court with juvenile jurisdiction for further processing. Juvenile Offenders and Victims 2006 National Report describes the flow of cases through the juvenile court system. See http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/ojstatbb/nr2006/downloads chapter6.pdf.

Trauma Among Youth

The National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice has published “Trauma Among Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: Critical Issues and New Directions.” This research and program brief provides an overview of trauma among youth in the juvenile justice system, including its scope and impact; and reviews tools, curricula and approaches for addressing trauma among justice-involved youth. Issues related to implementing trauma services within the juvenile justice system context are also discussed. See http://www.ncmhjj.com/pdfs/Trauma_and_Youth.pdf.

Summer Jobs

Most U.S. teenagers were not working nor were they looking for jobs this past summer for the first time on record, suggesting that teens are forgoing traditional summertime jobs, according to the Department of Labor. Only 48.8 percent of teens ages 16 to 19 were looking for work this past June, down from 51.6 percent in June 2006 and below the 60.2 percent in the labor force in June 2000. Labor force participation among teens in June peaked in 1978, when 67.7 percent of Americans ages 16 to 19 were working or looking for work. It has been suggested that the reasons why teens are bypassing work is to spend more time studying, even during the summer: 37.6 percent of teens ages 16 to 19 were enrolled in school in July 2006, up from 36.5 percent a year earlier and more than three times the share enrolled two decades ago. Other factors include 1) family household incomes are up significantly, 2) kids who seek work are finding heavy competition for the “good jobs,” 3) there is increasing competition for jobs by immigrants and older workers, and 4) many students opt for low-interest loans rather than working when in college.

Math and Science

In the global competition to educate students in math and science, Americans are losing ground. Out of 32 countries ranked between 2000 and 2003, the U.S. dropped five places to 20th in undergraduate science degrees earned, and slipped six spots to 26th in undergraduate math degrees earned. The National Math and Science Initiative is a non-profit organization created to improve math and science education in American schools by scaling-up proven programs to the national level. The goal is to provide 15,000 new teachers in math and science by the year 2020 as well as help to upgrade math and science programs in hundreds of school districts nationwide. See www.nationalmathandscience.org.

Drug Addiction and Behavior

The Science of Addiction has been released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). It is a 30-page booklet that explains how science has revolutionized the understanding of drug addiction as a brain disease that affects behavior. The booklet is available free of charge. See www.drugabuse.gov/scienceofaddiction or call 1-800-729-6686.

Risk Assessments

The U.S. Department of Justice recently published a report entitled Evaluating and Improving Risk Assessment Schemes for Sexual Recidivism. See http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/217618.pdf.

Indicators of Children’s Well-Being— The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has released America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007. Each year since 1997, the Forum has published this report, which includes detailed information on the welfare of children and families. The Forum alternates publishing a comprehensive report, as is the case this year, with a condensed version that highlights selected indicators. The report addresses such topics as family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. See (NCJ 219130) http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/index.asp.

Youth-Related Grants

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has awarded more than $41 million in grants that enhance the education and career skills of troubled youth. Part of DOL’s ongoing response to the 2003 White House Task Force Report on Disadvantaged Youth, the grants will help at-risk youth access valuable education and skills training intended to put them on a path to job success. See http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20070976.htm. Additional information about DOL youth programs is available at http://www.doleta.gov/youth_services.

Enhanced SMART System

OJJDP has launched an enhanced version of its Socioeconomic Mapping and Resource Topography (SMART) System. SMART is a geographic information system and Webbased mapping application that pinpoints local geographic areas of crime and delinquency and nearby governmental and community resources to prevent and control it. This tool was developed to assist federal, state, and local decision makers in targeting areas of greatest need and allocating resources accordingly. Along with maps, SMART creates tables and graphs to chart a wide array of socioeconomic data, such as population, crime, housing, health, and mortality. Data sources include the U.S. Census Bureau and OJJDP’s Statistical Briefing Book. Recent enhancements include the addition of:

• the ability to upload address files from an Excel spreadsheet, Access database, or comma delineated text files to be geocoded and entered into the system for the user’s analysis
• public schools with contact information (National Center for Education Statistics)
• public juvenile residential placement facilities (Juvenile Residential Facility Census)
• Uniform Crime Report data (1994–2004), enabling the user to conduct trend analysis. See http://smart.gismapping.info.

Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws

The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs recently announced block awards of more than $17 million to 50 states and the District of Columbia to enforce state and local underage drinking laws. The awards are made through the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws program, which supports activities in law enforcement, public education programs, and innovative methods for reaching youth. Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws is the only federal initiative directed exclusively toward preventing underage drinking. The program is a $25 million initiative consisting of block grants to each state and the District of Columbia, and discretionary awards to selected states to fund the best and most promising activities and research at the local level. Each state and the District of Columbia received at least $350,000 in the form of block grants. The awards support a wide range of activities, including a strong emphasis on compliance checks of retail alcohol outlets to reduce sales to minors, crackdowns on false identification, programs to reduce the incidence of older youth or adults providing alcohol to minors, “party patrols” to prevent access to alcohol at large youth gatherings, and “cops in shops” to deter minors’ attempts to purchase alcohol.

OVC News

Downloadable Curriculum: OVC’s Sexual Assault Advocate/Counselor Training (SAACT) downloadable curriculum is now available. SAACT teaches advocates how to provide effective crisis intervention services to victims and survivors of sexual assault. Visit the OVC Training Center to browse this and other new trainings now available to the field.

Training Schedule for Victim Service Providers: OVC is offering a series of fall/winter training workshops to enhance the capacity of service providers to serve crime victims and increase their professional skills. See the Professional Development Institute.

OVC Victim Assistance Academy: The 2007 National Victim Assistance Academy will be held December 9-14 2007, in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area, Maryland. Visit OVC’s Training Center for more information and apply online for the 2007 Academy.

Smart Baby Videos

Sitting infants down in front of videos may actually set very young children back, according to the Journal of Pediatrics, which reports that for every hour spent watching, infants understand fewer words than those who didn’t watch. Researchers used random telephone surveys of more than 1,000 parents, asking how many words from a list of 90 or so their child understood. For older kids, parents said how many their child used. For babies aged eight to 16 months, every hour each day spent watching videos marketed for brain-building translated into six to eight fewer words understood, compared with kids who didn’t watch. For kids from one and a half to two years old, the smart-baby videos showed no effect.

Status Offenders—The American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Law has published “Families in Need of Critical Assistance: Legislation and Policy Aiding Youth Who Engage in Noncriminal Misbehavior.” The publication focuses on addressing the needs of juvenile status offenders (i.e., youth who run away, are ungovernable or truant) and their families. It provides a context for and explanation of the need to better serve families in crisis, reviews the causes and contexts within which youth engage in non-criminal misbehaviors, and suggests legislative and policy strategies to intervene early and divert juvenile status offenders from court systems. It is available in hardcopy only for purchase from the ABA Service Center, which may be reached, toll free, at 800-285-2221. See http://www.abanet.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=main&fm=Product.AddToCart& pid=5490443.

Disproportionate Minority Contact

The National Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Databook is designed to give users an understanding of the Relative Rate Index (RRI) and an assessment of the levels of disproportionate minority contact at various stages of juvenile justice system processing at the national level. New users should review the sections entitled “What is an RRI?” and “Constructing an RRI Matrix.” The first briefly discusses the benefits in using an RRI Matrix to investigate disproportionate minority contact within a jurisdiction. The second discusses how an RRI Matrix can be prepared using available information and the compromises that at times need to occur. For a more detailed discussion of these topics, users are encouraged to review Chapter One of the online Disproportionate Minority Contact Technical Assistance Manual, 3rd Edition. See http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/dmc_ta_manual/dmcch1.pdf].

In the National DMC Databook, users can review the raw counts and rates that characterize the processing of delinquency cases by the juvenile justice system and then study the RRI Matrix that helps to pinpoint and quantify the levels of racial disparity introduced at various decision points within the system. For those who need assistance, some possible interpretations of the most current RRI Matrices are given, as are interpretations of the trends in the level of disparity for each decision point. It is hoped that users can develop a better understanding of the RRIs from these interpretations and can apply this understanding when studying the many other RRIs that are available for review in this data dissemination tool or the RRIs developed locally to capture the nature of disproportionate minority contact in their own communities.

Mom’s Diabetes, Kid Obesity Linked—A mother’s blood-sugar level during pregnancy may be a powerful—but easily controllable— contributor to childhood obesity, according to a large new study by researchers with Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research (CHR). The study, published in the September issue of Diabetes Care, found that mothers with untreated gestational diabetes—a form of the disease that occurs only during pregnancy— were nearly twice as likely to bear overweight children, compared with healthy moms. And the data showed that some mothers with “normal” blood-sugar readings were at risk as well: pregnant women with blood-sugar levels at the highest end of the currently accepted normal range were at least 22 percent more likely to have heavy children than women in the lowest quartile.

Researchers analyzed medical information on 9,439 mother-child pairs who received health care through Kaiser Permanente in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. All women gave birth between 1995 and 2000, and none had pre-existing diabetes. The women were screened for hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, and gestational diabetes; their children were measured for weight between the ages of 5 and 7—what researchers call the adiposity- rebound period, during which excessive weight gain usually predicts adult obesity. Regardless of factors like race or ethnicity, birth weight and maternal weight gain or age, researchers found that the risk of a child becoming overweight rose in step with the mother’s blood-sugar level during pregnancy.

Women whose blood-sugar tests indicated gestational diabetes were 89 percent more likely than other women to have overweight children, and 82 percent more likely to have obese kids. Women whose blood-sugar readings were at the upper end of normal (122 mg/dl to 140 mg/dl) were still 22 percent more likely to have overweight children than women at the low end of normal (with bloodsugar levels between 43 mg/dl and 94 mg/dl), and 28 percent more likely to bear children who become obese.

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