CCJ 305 Juvenile Justice Reform

Modern approaches, evolving issues, and best practices for juvenile delinquency prevention and juvenile justice reform are the foci of the course. Students explore identifiers of “at-risk” youths, and the role disproportionate minority contact, poverty, trauma, mental health disorders, and physical or intellectual disabilities play in affecting the behavior of juveniles. Examination of past practices like the "school to prison pipeline" phenomenon that have disproportionately impacted youth from communities of color are critiqued and contrasted with more efficacious and equitable approaches.