The data reflected in this report highlights important information about the scope of data collection and key findings for a selection of Montgomery County’s evidence-based programs provided in schools during the 2023–24 school year. WestEd has been funded by the Office of Drug and Alcohol in Montgomery County since 2018 to assist in evaluation planning, program evaluation implementation, and comprehensive reporting of alcohol and drug prevention programming in the county. Prior reports have been issued for 2021-2022, and 2022-2023.
Report
Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Scale-Up: Study of Four States
The Annie E. Casey Foundation (Casey) funded the JPRC to study the implementation of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) in Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, and New Mexico.
JDAI is a complex, multipart reform initiative developed by Casey to reduce reliance on the use of detention for low-risk young people in the juvenile justice system prior to disposition.
Casey has worked closely with local jurisdictions and states across the country since the 1990s to implement the initiative and bring it to scale.
This report:
- Describes how the four states have scaled-up the JDAI
- Summarizes the lessons learned from JDAI implementation both in and across the states
- Presents findings that can be used to inform practice and guide future scale-ups of the JDAI and other complex juvenile justice reform initiatives
A National Evaluation of Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Training: Final Report
The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program was developed in 1988 to help state and local law enforcement agencies effectively respond to technology-related crimes against children. This program, managed by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), includes funding to provide training and technical assistance to law enforcement.
The JPRC was funded by OJJDP (on a project later transferred to the NIJ) to conduct the National Evaluation of ICAC Task Force Training, the first to examine training provided by the ICAC program. Due to concerns about the sensitivity of investigative data, only certain findings could be released in the final report. Findings suggest that overall, ICAC investigative training was rated highly by both trainees and their ICAC commanders in terms of the quality of training delivery, expertise of instructors, knowledge gains, and applicability to on-the-job ICAC investigations.
Recommendations to Improve State School Safety Centers
Our team developed a framework that identifies a series of best practices based on our National Institute of Justice–funded comprehensive evaluation of state school safety centers (SSSCs). The guide offers insights to enhance the focus of SSSCs, their structure, and the support services they provide.
Push and Pull Factors for Female Involvement in Gangs and Collateral Involvement in Sex Trafficking: Systematic Review of Research
Until recently, research on the roles of females in gangs has been minimal because violence and gang membership have historically been thought to be male-dominated phenomena. This paper addresses the knowledge gap by focusing specifically on females and the unique factors contributing to their gang involvement.
As part of a project by the JPRC in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the paper presents a systematic review of research on factors that “push” or “pull” females toward gang involvement. The factors identified by the research include peer and family environment, victimization, neighborhood and school influences, and sex trafficking involvement.
The paper helps school staff and administrators consider prevention strategies to dissuade all students from future gang involvement. Given the overlap between various forms of prior sexual abuse and female gang involvement, close coordination between program developers, implementation staff, and community providers who support victims of sexual crimes may be important to best support victims and deter them from future gang involvement.
Additionally, community prevention strategies should consider a strong collaboration with schools to identify and intervene with current gang members and prevent younger siblings from future involvement. The findings also suggest a need for further research on gender-specific interventions to prevent female gang involvement.
2022-2023 Prevention Programming and Evaluation Findings
The data reflected in this report highlights important information about the scope of data collection and key findings for a selection of Montgomery County’s evidence-based programs provided in schools during the 2022–23 school year. WestEd has been funded by the Office of Drug and Alcohol in Montgomery County to assist in evaluation planning, program evaluation implementation, and comprehensive reporting of alcohol and drug programming in the county
Our team has designed data collection procedures, trained providers on data collection, and conducted analyses of the evaluation data collected from students participating in evidence-based programs provided in Montgomery County schools as well as other prevention programming offered throughout the county.