Introduction
The judges of the juvenile courts are responsible for providing juveniles with the best alternative to their delinquent behavior. Thus, decision making plays a major role in determining the juveniles sentencing. Often times, judges take into consideration the prior and current legal history of the juveniles to develop a strategy to prevent recidivism. The study, The Effects of Treatment Needs and Prior Social Services Use on Juvenile Court Decision Making, examines a different approach to a judge’s decision making by introducing the treatment needs and prior social services use of the juvenile defendant. This paper will focus on identifying the purpose of the research study, problem, and questions; describing the design of the study; identifying an operational definition used by the researchers; providing one example of inductive logic and one example of deductive logic presented in the results; identifying and explaining whether the research study is a quantitative or qualitative design; identifying the methodology, population, sampling methods, and return rate, if applicable; identifying the finding of the study ; describing the author’s conclusion and recommendations; and stating whether the study could have been done differently or improved.
Purpose: Research, Study and Questions
The purpose of the research study, problem, and questions is to determine the effectiveness of evaluating juvenile treatment needs and prior social services use prior to juvenile sentencing and/or decision making. It has been shown, that often times, juveniles who appear before judges in juvenile court are/or have experienced mental health issues and/or have had involvement with social services. These health issues include, but are not limited to, risky sexual behavior, mental health, substance abuse, and drug abuse. Social services involvement may include community – based intervention programs, mental health facilities, welfare, educational programs, etc....