2026 Issues

Little is known about the effective use of evidence-based academic interventions in juvenile correctional facilities (JCF; Public Law 115-385). One consideration in identifying evidence-based practices is taking students' perspectives into account. This literature review analyzed peer-reviewed studies published in English between January 1975 and 2024 that focus on the academic experiences of students incarcerated in long-term JCF within the United States. Included studies focused on academics (e.g., literacy, writing, mathematics, history, or science), and incorporated student voice through direct data collection methods (e.g., interviews, surveys, focus groups) or involved students in the research process (e.g., planning, data collection, analysis, or writing). The review integrates findings that foreground the views and participation of incarcerated students in academic research, highlighting gaps and directing future inquiry into student-centered academic methods in juvenile justice settings. The characteristics of the studies and how researchers assessed and utilized the student voice data are discussed.  

Parental monitoring remains a central protective factor against a range of adolescent risk behaviors, including substance use, mental health issues, and negative peer influence. It involves parental awareness and oversight of adolescents’ friendships, activities,  and  digital  behavior  Recent  scholarship  has  further  advanced  this understanding  by  exploring  moderating  influences  such  as  neighborhood  context,  peer  relationships,  and cognitive factors. Building on this foundation, the present study examines the impact of parental monitoring on adolescent well-being, with a specific focus on the moderating role of school connectedness. This study used the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to examine the effect of parental monitoring on adolescent well-being  mediating  for  school  connectedness.  To  achieve  this,  researchers  conducted  binary  logistic regression analyses explored four outcomes: poor mental health, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and drug use. Across all models, higher parental monitoring was associated with significantly lower odds of negative outcomes.  These  findings  underscore  the  dual  importance  of  engaged  parenting  and  supportive  school environments  in  promoting  adolescent  resilience,  while  also  pointing  to  the  need  for  tailored  supports  for vulnerable subgroups. Implications, future research, police, and practice are discussed. 

Youth reintegrating into society following incarceration, commonly referred to as reentry youth or youth who reenter, face major challenges to achieving successful, healthy developmental trajectories when transitioning back to their families and communities. Family-based interventions focusing on family strengths and psychoeducational skills help reduce risky behaviors and assist youth who reenter transition back into their families and healthy trajectories into adulthood. Research on family-based interventions for youth who reenter and barriers to treatment engagement however, is limited. The qualitative findings reported in this paper draw from a larger randomized control trial of a family-based intervention for youth who reenter and their families. Youth who reenter and their guardians were queried about their motivation to participate in family-based interventions and their desired content for these interventions. Analyses revealed themes reflecting these families’ needs and suggested strategies for researchers and practitioners to consider that may increase families’ participation when developing and implementing family-based interventions. These findings are essential for fostering engagement in these interventions, promoting treatment adherence, and ultimately improving outcomes of youth who reenter when transitioning back to their families and communities. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

The research-to-practice gap in juvenile services is substantial, as it is in most other fields. This gap contributes to adverse psychosocial outcomes for youth that are juvenile-legal service and system-involved, such as mental health concerns. Implementation science emerged to reduce discrepancies between research and practice. This article introduces implementation science and explains how it may be harnessed to enhance youth outcomes and bring about systemic change in the juvenile-legal services sector. An overview of implementation science is provided, with a particular emphasis on accelerating the adoption of evidence based practices, like restorative justice as a diversionary tactic and graduated response as an alternative approach towards probationary youth, within the juvenile-legal system. Given the field’s focus on implementation, we emphasize opportunities for researchers and practitioners to incorporate implementation science into practice and research, and we offer helpful examples and suggestions for juvenile services practitioners looking to integrate evidence-based methods in their contexts.