Policymaking and planning in the juvenile court is a difficult undertaking because the decision-making environment is constantly changing and there is little goal consensus. A lack of adequate information on present practices and their impact further hinders assessment efforts. To address the problem of inadequate feedback, a policy-oriented research model that employs systems rates and rate determinants as the focus of analysis is developed. The model, which uses offender based transaction data available to virtually all courts with computerized data collection procedures, is described and its utility demonstrated in an analysis of the Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona Juvenile Court.
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