Peer Justice and Youth Empowerment: An Implementation Guide for Teen Court Programs

Growing evidence indicates that teen courts give a community's children and adults a practical response to the problems associated with delinquency, traffic safety, and substance abuse. Developing and implementing teen courts requires a collaborative effort and juvenile justice agencies need baseline information that will aid them in creating teen court programs as viable alternatives for juvenile offenders. A description of the teen court program, along with baseline information, are provided in this guide. The text examines the teen court concept in depth, giving a history of its effectiveness. No particular program model is endorsed, but examples and descriptions are provided to illustrate the variety of ways teen court programs operate. Detailed information is given on organizing the community, developing a program purpose and goals, designing program services, developing a program model, recruiting and training volunteers, as well as program evaluation and on legal issues. At the end of each chapter are checklists that summarize the chapter's material and directions for guiding program developers. Seven appendices include: sample resources for program development and implementation, sample teen court program brochures, a teen court directory, sample forms, sample courtroom protocol, sample volunteer resources, and sample program evaluation resources. (Contains approximately 100 references.) (RJM)