Juvenile Assessment Centers: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Potential

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Abstract
Increases in recent years in both violent crime and substance use among United States youth necessitate the development of more efficient and clinically effective approaches to intervention with juvenile offenders. One such approach calls for development and implementation of Juvenile Assessment Centers (JACs) to centralize the screening of juveniles who have been placed in some form of police custody and better coordinate justice and human service system activities. This article presents a summary of data from interviews and surveys conducted at five JACs in three states. It discusses the findings in the context of an “ideal model” specifically designed to better address substance use among justice-involved juveniles.