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Resisting Limits on Discretion: Implementation Issues of Juvenile Dispositional Guidelines

Indiana University School of Social Work Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

In 1993, the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth and Families introduced an objective guidelines instrument to help determine eligibility for placement at the state's juvenile training school. The instrument was intended to improve the consistency of dispositions and narrow training school placements to serious and/or chronic offenders by focusing recommendations on youths' offense characteristics and placing limits on the discretion of probation officers and judges. An evaluation of the implementation and impact of the guidelines analyzed one year's use of the instrument and surveyed probation officers' and judges' atti tudes towards and experiences with the guidelines. The results show that the guidelines did not have their intended impact because they were not truly implemented. The officials and staff charged with using them resist ed the limits the guidelines attempted to place on discretion. A consider ation of why the implementation failed sheds light on the process of implementing policy innovations in juvenile justice settings.

Criminal Justice Policy Review, Vol. 8, No. 2-3, 169-200 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/088740349700800203


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