Chapter 15- Juvenile and Adult Corrections

Key vocabulary terms from Chapter 1 of Wrighstman's Psychology and the Law

Adjudication of delinquency

The legal determination that a juvenile is capable of an offense. When responsible for offending, juveniles are adjudicated delinquent; adults are found guilty.

Classification

The evaluation of convicted offenders by a correctional facility or parole office to assess the level o frisk of criminal recidivism, institutional misconduct, and escape or noncompliance.

Criminal conviction

The outcome of a criminal prosecution that concludes in a judgement that the adult defendant is guilty of the crime charged.

Criminogenic needs

The deficits (such as substance abuse, family problems, educational problems, and pro-criminal attitudes) that increase the risk of reoffending.

Diversion

The practice of officially stopping or suspending a case prior to court adjudication (without a formal trial) and deferring the defendant to a community education, treatment, or work program in lieu of adjudication or incarceration.

Functional Family Therapy

A community-based intervention for juvenile offenders. It is provided weekly by a single therapist, over an average period of three months. It is family-focused, and is often delivered in the home.

Graduated Response

Approach used in a juvenile or correctional context involving the use of sanctions that are proportional to the violation, begin in a limited way, and increase with the number of violations.

Intensive probation

Probation involving frequent monitoring and contact.

Multisystemic Therapy

An empirically supported intervention for juvenile offenders implemented in multiple domains (e.g., family, school, structured activity) to reduce serious antisocial behavior and strengthen dysfunctional families.

Parole

The conditional release from prison of a person convicted of a crime prior to the expiration of that person’s term of imprisonment, subject to both the supervision of the correctional authorities during the remainder of the term and a resumption of the imprisonment upon violation of the conditions imposed.

Prisonization

The gradual process in which prisoners adjust to their environment (i.e., assimilate to the customs and culture of the penitentiary).

Probation

The conditional freedom from incarceration following criminal conviction. It involves a specified set of conditions for which compliance is monitored by the probation officer assigned to the case. Probation conditions may include drug use monitoring, substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, and skills-based training in particular areas (e.g., anger management, decision-making).

Reentry

The process of returning from incarceration to the community.

Risk, needs, and responsivity (RNR)

A theory that describes three separate considerations (risk, need, and responsivity) involving interventions for criminal offenders Risk means that the likelihood of committing future offenses should be evaluated; those at highest risk should receive the most intensive interventions. Needs are the deficits (such as substance abuse, family problems, educational problems, and procriminal attitudes) that increase the risk of reoffending. Responsivity involves the likelihood of a favorable response to the interventions, and the influences that may affect such responding.

School-based probation

A variation on the standard conditions of probation in which the youth’s attendance, performance, and behavior in school are monitored through the probation officer’s personal visits to the school.

Therapeutic community

A community-based approach in which all staff ad participants are considered to be part of the treatment process. It has generally been used for drug offenders and domestic violence offenders. This approach may include group therapy, individual counseling, and drug testing with the objective of building skills in controlling anger, improving decision-making, and recognizing high-risk situations.

Therapeutic jurisprudence

An approach to the law emphasizing the favorable mental health impact or otherwise “therapeutic” impact of the legal system upon its participants.

Treatment Foster Care Oregon

An empirically supported juvenile intervention that involves placing juveniles with specially trained foster parents rather than in residential placement.