New Hampshire institutes a strength-based perspective.

The New Hampshire Division for Juvenile Justice Services (DJJS) was created three years ago. Prior to its existence, juvenile justice services were provided by two state agencies; one was responsible for institutional services and the other for community and field services. The creation of DJJS allowed for more integrated delivery of services for the 2,500 youths the agency is responsible for on any given day.

The agency's goal is to view its client population (delinquents and status offenders) from a strength-based perspective, meaning that clients are considered potential assets to the community. DJJS delivers services that may help it reach that goal while also enhancing community safety. In order to do this, DJJS clients must have a greater likelihood of being successful when they exit the system than when they entered it. Consequently, DJJS is developing an assessment instrument to measure its clients for both risk and protective factors.

Measuring Risk And Protective Factors

Much has been written about risk factors and their existence in the juvenile justice population. (1) Yet, not all youths with multiple risk factors migrate into the juvenile justice arena. Research suggests that youths with risk factors who do well also have protective factors in their lives such as support from positive peers, rules and routines at home, the ability to function as a good student and some perceived competency. These protective factors are able to neutralize and overcome the negative influence of risk factors. (2) Thus, high-risk youths (those with many risk factors and few protective factors) would have a greater likelihood of being successful if protective factors could be introduced into their lives. However, in order to determine which protective factors are both nonexistent in a client and possible to introduce, DJJS must determine what factors do exist (both risk and protective) for each youth.

In an effort to create an assessment instrument that is consistent with a strength-based framework, the producers of the DJJS risk and needs assessment drew heavily from the previous work of treatment program consultant Dr. Eric Vance. As the chief clinical consultant and medical director of the North Carolina Willie M. Program for Aggressive and Emotionally Disordered Youths, Vance and colleagues conducted a comprehensive survey of the developmental outcome literature on very high-risk youths. From this survey, an inventory of all the substantiated risk and protective factors for a variety of high-risk youths was compiled. (3) The inventory of risk and protective factors was formulated into the Willie M. assessment and outcomes instrument (AOI). As a result, it was successfully used to initially evaluate the youths, plan treatment interventions, and annually monitor the level of risk and protective factors and the functioning of the youths in the program.

The most unique and important aspect of the DJJS risk and needs assessment and the AOI, is the deliberate inclusion of a careful assessment of most of the known protective factors possessed by resilient, high-risk youths. While many risk and needs assessments that are currently being used do an adequate job documenting risk factors, very few adequately inventory the existing protective factors in the lives of youths entering the juvenile justice system. This is a crucial oversight since the existence of protective factors powerfully moderates the long-term life outcomes of all high-risk youths. By assessing the presence or absence of protective factors in the life of an individual youth, case planners can identify true strengths, as well as determine the specific needs of a child in terms of protective factors to attempt to build them up through intervetion. Since each youth is unique in strengths and needs, some will require work to build protective factors in the family or home, in the school or education realm, in developing social relationships, or in building social supports and participating in positive community activities. Nearly every youth entering the juvenile justice system has some, but not enough of these protective factors, and the extent that DJJS can facilitate the enhancement of such strengths is the extent to which it will build resilience in youths and improve their life outcomes.

Preliminary Results

The DJJS risk and needs assessment was initially piloted in two of the agency's 12 field offices from May until September 2003: one office was in a rural setting while the other was in a relatively more urban setting. The assessment was completed on all youths entering the juvenile justice system through both of the two pilot offices during a six-month period. In an effort to address concerns of inter-rater reliability (meaning that two different people completing the assessment instrument on a client will obtain essentially the same information), any youth committed to DJJS's secure institution, the Youth Development Center, from anywhere in the state during the six-month pilot program also was assessed. Since the completion of the initial pilot phase, the assessment instrument has been modified and is being piloted statewide. In addition, field staff are being trained on how to conduct an assessment.

The preliminary data from the pilot use of the instrument have revealed the expected profiles of prevalent risk factors, including single-parent families, mostly negative peers, serious school problems, drug or alcohol use, poverty, conflict with parents, exposure to violence, and parental mental or substance abuse disorders. The most prevalent area of need identified during the pilot study has been the absence of the following protective factors: social support and community involvement, such as adult mentors, adult supports through school, jobs or activity involvement, church connections or positive peer supports. These identified needs certainly provide ample targets for intervention to build resiliency.

The DJJS risk and needs assessment also documents the crime severity of each youth, as well as the current frequency of serious target behaviors, including risky status offenses, self-harm behaviors, serious threats, assaultive behavior and drug or alcohol use. These measures will be used to determine intensity of supervision or placement needs, and to monitor behavioral outcomes of interventions.

Once the risk- and needs-assessment instrument is finalized, the information gathered from it will be used to determine workload (versus caseload) standards for DJJS's field services and to target rehabilitative services for DJJS youths. The ratio of risk to protective factors will be used to determine the service needs of cases (e.g., low, medium, high) and, thus, distribute workloads so that clients will receive the attention and intensity of the services that they need. Information relative to the presence of protective factors, and the lack thereof, will be used to develop treatment plans for specific youths with targeted interventions to address identified goals and objectives.

DJJS's commitment to a strength-based orientation for its clients is far-reaching. The entire divisional staff has been trained in the basic principles and ongoing, detailed training is planned. DJJS believes that a strength-based, positive youth development approach will truly make a difference in the lives of its clients.

ENDNOTES

(1) Loeber, R. and D.P. Farrington, eds. 2001. Child delinquents: Development, intervention and service needs. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications Inc.

(2) Smith, C., A. Lizotte, T. Thornberry and D. Krohn. 1995. Resilient youth: Identifying factors that prevent high-risk youth from engaging in delinquency and drug use. Current Perspectives on Aging and Life Cycle, 4:217-247.

(3) Sanchez, H. and J.E. Vance. 1995. The brief resiliency checklist.

Egon Jensen, MSW, is assistant director of the New Hampshire Division for Juvenile Justice Services. Eric Vance, M.D., is medical director for child and family services at the Seacoast Mental Health Center in Portsmouth, N.H., and serves as a consultant to DJJS.