Graduated Sanctions for Juvenile Offenders

The term graduated sanctions refers to the establishment of a set of juvenile court interventions that become increasingly punitive and restrictive as offending behavior becomes more serious or repetitive. These sanctions developed as practitioners, judges, researchers, and legislators became aware of an inability of juvenile courts to address youth crime effectively. As juvenile courts began to see a significant increase of delinquency in the late 1980s, it became apparent that typical court responses were inadequate. At that time, most courts employed two intervention options for delinquent youth: traditional probation, with the youth living at home under formal supervision of juvenile authorities, and placement of the youth in some form of secure facility until he or she could be returned safely to the community. The increase of youth crime, combined with research showing that recidivism was not diminishing, brought about the need to establish intervention alternatives along a range of increasing formality and restrictiveness that could more effectively address delinquency. Because many of these alternatives were to be available in the community, graduated sanctions became associated with community corrections.

The idea of a continuum of restrictiveness suggests that as a youth exhibits more serious and repetitive delinquent behavior, he or she should be subject to decreasing privileges and freedoms. This continuum would allow the court to more appropriately address the needs of all youth committing recognized delinquent acts. The most common descriptions of this continuum include five stages of increasing restrictiveness. These can be summarized as warnings, informal interventions, formal probation, day treatment/intensive supervision, and residential placement.

Warnings typically include a stern verbal admonition from or a single counseling session with a juvenile officer or judge. Most appropriate to first-time nonviolent, nonserious offenders, warnings may be effective in redirecting youths from minor delinquent acts. Although documentation of the incident may be kept in a juvenile record, no adjudication to criminal charges occurs.

Informal interventions may include short-term supervision from a juvenile officer or agreement from the youth that she or he will complete a brief course of counseling, volunteer for a few hours of community service, or repay damages and write an apology letter to a victim. Still appropriate for nonserious, nonviolent offenses, informal interventions differ from warnings in that some future action [Page 192]is required of the offender. Documentation of the intervention is likely kept at least until the conditions imposed by the court and agreed to by the youth are met. Often, once the conditions are satisfied, all formal charges are dismissed. Again, no adjudication or conviction occurs.

Formal probation occurs after an adjudication or conviction to the delinquent charges. This intervention is typically applied to first-time or more serious offenders who are believed, after proper assessment, to be at relatively low risk of harming the community further. At this level, the youth is usually required to meet with a probation officer on a set schedule. Usually, departments will require the youth to see his or her probation officer at least one time per month, in person. Conditions for successful completion of the term of probation are set both by the court and by the probation department. These conditions may include completing a course of counseling, a skill development program, or a predetermined number of community service hours; paying a fine to the court or restitution to the victim; meeting a curfew to be at home every night by a set time; and/or regularly attending school with proper behavior. The primary goals of formal probation are generally both to punish the offender and to provide services (such as counseling) that are believed to benefit the youth so that he or she will not commit further delinquent acts. Although the youth's record will likely not be open to public inspection, a formal adjudication or conviction, along with the court-imposed requirements, will be placed in the youth's juvenile file.

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