- September 10, 2008 – Dr. Eisen (with link)
- December, 2008
- next meeting disproportionality
- In 2008 – 2009, Rosa Leslie, LCSW, Field Faculty, CSULA School of Social Work, received CSULA discretionary funds to help develop the growing Student Study Center at the Court
Recently, Denise Herz, Ph.D. (Criminalistics and Criminal Justice) partnered with Presiding Judge Michael Nash, the Department of Children and Family Services, and the Probation Department to study dependent youth who “cross over” into delinquency (i.e., youth processed under Welfare and Institutions Code 241.1). Key findings of this study included:
- Compared with the proportion of girls in general delinquency populations, a high proportion of crossover youth are girls.
- African-American youth are overrepresented in crossover cases moving from dependency to delinquency.
- Approximately half of crossover youth do not regularly attend school or, when attending school, engage in behaviors that result in suspensions.
- Most crossover youth have been in the dependency system for a long period of time and, like other youth who have long stays in the child welfare system, have experienced multiple placements.
- Many crossover youth have parents who are absent from their lives or struggling with their own criminal justice, substance abuse, and mental health issues.
- At least a third of the arrests that brought these youth into the juvenile justice system occurred while they were residing in group homes.
- More than two-thirds of crossover youth have had previous contact with the juvenile justice system.
- The great majority of crossover youth have a mental health or substance abuse problem.
- Risk factors such as having a history of running away, having previous 241.1 referrals, being detained at juvenile hall after arrest, and having a substance abuse problem significantly increase the likelihood of dependent youth becoming delinquency wards after arrest.