The Role of Risk Assessments and Juvenile Justice

Risk assessments have grown in popularity as a way to determine the risk and treatment needs of youth. These assessments when properly performed can promote youth potential and increase public safety by helping craft holistic and individual responses for kids that are involved in juvenile court. This episode of Spotlight on Youth focuses on research-based risk assessments and a new publication on that subject, Risk Assessment in Juvenile Justice: A Guidebook for Implementation.Guests will highlight the Guide's development and contents and discuss considerations when selecting assessment tools, protocols around their use, and tips and lessons learned for juvenile justice stakeholders, including attorneys, judges and probation officers.

Guests:

Elizabeth A. Fritz, Chief Juvenile Probation Officer, Lehigh County, PA
Mary Ann Scali, Deputy Director, National Juvenile Defender Center
Gina M. Vincent, PhD, Co-Director, National Youth Screening and Assessment Project