Prevention and Juvenile Justice
Glossaries

This is Section: R - Y

R

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Reality therapy

William Glasser and GL Harrington base this treatment modality on the principle that individuals must accept responsibility for their behavior.

Reasons for referral:

The most serious offenses for which youth can be referred to court intake.

Crimes against persons including criminal homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, simple assault, and any attempts to commit such acts

Crimes against property including burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson, vandalism, stolen property offenses, trespassing, extortion, fraud, forgery, embezzlement and any attempts to commit such acts

Drug law violations including unlawful sale, purchase, distribution, manufacture, cultivation, transport, possession, or use of a controlled or prohibited substance or drug or drug paraphernalia, or attempt to commit such acts

Recidivism

Repetition of criminal behavior after release from detention or completion of a sanction; recidivism rates can be an evaluation tool

Referral

Referral of a juvenile by legal authority to the juvenile justice system; the placement of an adjudicated juvenile in a community-based program

Reintegration Planning

Preparation of strategies for a juvenile offender's release from custody; preparation for the safe return of a juvenile to his/her community

RFP

Request for Proposal publicly issued by the government (or in some cases foundations) describing in great detail the specifications and application procedures for a specific grant.

Research-based or Science-Based Programs

These programs have been reviewed by experts in the field according to predetermined standards of empirical research. They are theory-based, have sound research methodology, and can prove that effects are clearly linked to the program itself and not to extraneous events. Results from science-based programs may be positive, neutral, or negative.

Residential settings

Residential placements range from school settings to staff secure group homes. Placements may for a few days to many months. Staff is on site 24 hours a day. Education, counseling, and treatment are a key part of the services. NH has a variety of residential placements.

Resiliency

Personal traits that allow children to survive and grow into healthy, productive adults in spite of having experienced negative/traumatic experiences and high-risk environments.

Restitution

A sanction requiring the offender to repay the victim - either with cash or through community service - for the damage resulting from his/her criminal-type behavior

Restorative Justice principles

A philosophy that changes the current focus of punishing the offender to a philosophy that emphasizes rehabilitation of the victim first, the safety of the community second, and the development of offender capabilities third. This philosophy can be applied in any setting.

Results-based planning and budgeting

A process that starts with the planned outcomes and directs resources and budgeting to achieve them.

Risk factors

Characteristics or attributes of a person, their family, their peers, their environment, their school, etc., that increase the chance for behavior problems. Typical risk factors include living where drugs and firearms are available in the community, school failure, family conflict, and friends who engage in problem behaviors. These risk factors fall within four categories or domains: community, family, school, and individual/peer.

Runaways

Juveniles who flee from protective custody settings

US Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Sanction

A penalty for noncompliance; an effective juvenile justice system includes a complete array of sanctions, from the least to the most intrusive.

Secure Detention

Temporary locked confinement for (1) youth awaiting adjudication or placement or (2) for youth ordered to youth corrections as a sentence for contempt of court; in the adult correctional system, this is analogous to jail. In NH, this is the Youth Services Detention Unit (YDSU) located in Concord.

Secure Facilities

Long-term locked confinement typically reserved for the most serious and habitual offenders; youth receive education, care, supervision, and treatment and are required to confront their criminal thinking and antisocial behavior. In the adult correctional system, this is analogous to prison. In NH, this is the Youth Detention Center (YDC) in Manchester.

Self-assessment tool

An instrument used by an entity to evaluate itself at a specific point in time.

Service

Work done by an entity to improve the well-being of others.

Service delivery system

The manner in which programs, services, and supports are accessible, comprehensive, integrated, culturally-sensitive, family-focused, school-linked, and neighborhood-based.

Service integration

A process by which public and private education, health, mental health, economic development, employment, and social services are delivered in a unified way to improve results for targeted populations.

Shelter Care

The temporary care of youth in facilities secured by staff and typically serving dependent, abused, or neglected youth and status offenders.

Skill Development

A program that develops social, career, life, and educational skills.

Social control theory

This model, based on the integration of social control and cultural learning theories, proposes that the development of attachments to parents will lead to attachments to school and a commitment to education as well as a belief in and commitment to conventional behavior and the law.

Social development model

This model, based on the integration of social control and cultural learning theories, proposes that the development of attachments to parents will lead to attachments to school and a commitment to education as well as a belief in and commitment to conventional behavior and the law.

Social process theories

These theories examine the interactions between individuals and their environments that influence them to become involved in delinquent behavior.

Social structure theories

These theories suggest that the setting for delinquency is the social and cultural environment in which adolescents grown up or the sub-cultural groups with which they choose to become involved.

Sociopath

One suffering from serious emotional disorders with aggressive asocial behaviors; children who exhibit these traits frequently become hard-core juvenile delinquents.

Source of referral

The agency or individual filing a complaint that initiates court proceedings including: town and city police officers, state police, sheriffs, appointed prosecutors, and civilians such as the youth's own parents or legal guardians, school staff, social agencies victims, and other private citizens.

Stakeholder

Those who have with an interest in the program and its evaluation (e.g., participants, funders, managers etc.) A person or entity with an interest in the outcomes.

Start-Up Grant

A grant to cover the costs of starting a new project or organization.

Status offenses

Non-criminal behavior that is considered an offense only when committed by a juvenile because of their status as minors; offenses include being truant from school, running away from home, not obeying the reasonable expectations of parents, or violating curfew; also know as CHINS offenses.

Strategy

A course of action; something one does to put principles into practice, in the case of substance abuse prevention: information dissemination, education, earlyintervention, social policy/environmental change, etc.

Support

Activities informally done to improve the well-being of others.

Suspicion

No specific offense; suspect released without formal charges being placed.

Systems reform

Strategies that change the way services are delivered, financed, and governed, and that change accountability for the outcomes.

The provision of specific expertise to meet a specific need.

Tracking

An intensive level of supervision offered by a private organization or agency

Training

The transferring of knowledge, skills, and understanding

Treatment

A therapeutic program conducted by a professional individual or agency.

A temporary or permanent termination of parental rights in the best interests of the child; usually given for reasons of abandonment, abuse, or neglect, but also including mental illness, addiction, or criminal record. Law prohibits poverty alone and character flaws from being indicators of "unfitness".

Uniform Crime Reports

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual report of crimes committed in the United States.

Unrestricted Grant

A grant awarded to further the purpose or work of an organization rather than for a specific project; also called a General Operating Support Grant.

Upper Age

The age beyond which the juvenile offenders are handled through the juvenile justice system; the upper age in NH is now 17; however, this age may be returned to 18 pending legislation in Concord

An investment in a new initiative or project that is intended to obtain other investments.

Venue

The geographic location where a court with jurisdiction may hear a case; delinquency petitions may be filed in the city or county where the offense occurred instead of in the home community of the youth

Violent crime

Crimes including murder, forcible rape, armed robbery, robbery, and aggravated assault

Vision

A shared picture of the future an entity seeks to create.

VOCA

Victims of Crime Act

A court action "certifying" the youth as eligible for trial as an adult because rehabilitation appears unlikely or because the crime was particularly atrocious

Wrap-Around Services

Adjunct services that have been added to provide additional benefits to youth i.e. psychotherapy, skills development services, and psychological testing; implies a presence of collaboration that will result in better services to the child and family and an optimal use of resources

A 108-bed co-educational secure correction facility located in Manchester, NH and serving as the secure correction facility for adjudicated juveniles in New Hampshire who have committed serious offenses.

Youth Detention Services Unit (YDSU)

A 23-bed, co-educational, secure detention facility located in Concord, NH and housing youth up to 17 years of age who are alleged to have committed delinquent offenses and are awaiting disposition of their cases by the sending courts.

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