I mentioned in this blog how many electronic newsletters I receive, and how much good information is contained in them.


One newsletter I didn’t mention in the first post is The Link, which states its mission or purpose as: Connecting Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare. It is a publication from the Child Welfare League of America.


One article written a few years ago is titled Youth in Foster Care Who Commit Delinquent Acts. The article discusses information gleaned from a study by the Children and Family Research Center at the University of Illinois. The first paragraph states what is sadly not much of an epiphany for many of you reading this blog … youth who have experienced abuse and neglect are more likely to engage in juvenile delinquency than are youth in the general population.


The sample population of kids studied were from Cook County, Illinois—Chicago. Trust me, having lived in a suburb of Chicago for five years and read the paper and listened to the news, this is a good population to study if one is assessing abuse, neglect, trauma, and negative life experiences. The research found kids who experienced the above risk factors were 47% more likely to become delinquents. Forty-seven percent!


One judge is quoted in the article as stating:

In my experience, foster care is just one of those preparatory steps before the kid commits a crime. The vast majority of kids in foster care will do something—trespass, shoplift, assault, smoke marijuana, whatever. If you get in foster care, the risk factors go up, and you’ll probably see the kid in the delinquency system.

Interestingly enough, when I lived in Kansas the first time, before moving to Illinois, I heard it was common practice for folks around here who were concerned with providing the best services for the kids to get the kids adjudicated “JD’s” or Juvenile Delinquents because the services provided by that side of the system were far better than what was being provided by the child welfare folks. (They were too busy at that time arguing about who was in control and taking down good foster and adoptive families ... ) Now how sad is that? But if the kid’s record was expunged when they became an adult, the argument was it was not that big of a deal … if they got better services it was the way to go.


The article was written by a spokesperson for Children’s Rights, a national child advocacy organization based in New York City. They cited four areas that needed improvement to facilitate a better connection and communication between the child welfare system and juvenile justice systems. I will address those specifically in upcoming blogs.


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