Trends and Issues in the Deinstitutionalization of Youths in Trouble

Abstract

Instead of focusing exclusively on status offenders, or on youths adjudicated by a juvenile court, this paper summarizes trends and issues related to the differential institutional handling of all youths who are in trouble with the law of their jurisdiction, or who could be if the enforce ment and judicial systems took official note of their behavior. Three cate gories of institutional handling of juveniles, usually treated separately, are discussed: juvenile correction, child welfare, and mental health. There have been significant reductions in long-term correctional handling of youths in trouble, but there have also been offsetting changes in the use of private correctional facilities, residential treatment institutions associated with child welfare, and psychiatric units of general and state hospitals. Seven factors contributing to the emergence of new modes of in stitutional handling are discussed: (1) shift in the balance between the public and private sectors, (2) increase in voluntary commitments, (3) permissive mixing of official and diagnostic labels, (4) transfer of legal responsibility, (5) redefinition of "acting out" behaviors, (6) increased use of mental health terminology and facilities, and (7) use of federal funds as an incentive to subsidize noncorrectional placements. The policy implications of empirical findings, particularly in regard to status offenders, are discussed in the concluding sections.