Assessment, I. Needs

The Process of Needs Assessment

After a juvenile is detained by police and referred to the probation department, the needs assessment process begins. The juvenile court (or family court, depending on the state) will normally request an assessment of the juvenile, and a variety of tests will be run. Face-to-face contact, coupled with a battery of psychological tests, is the basis for assessing a juvenile delinquent's needs and subsequently making a referral to appropriate services. The probation officer or other person doing the assessment will also contact and gather information from the delinquent's family and school. These contacts may help uncover additional needs or determine services aimed at resolving the delinquent's needs.

The following factors are frequently identified as juvenile needs:

• 1.
  The prevalence of abuse and neglect, particularly an abusive and traumatized home life.
• 2.
  Alcohol and other drug use.
• 3.
  Mental health problems.
• 4.
  Stress-related illnesses.
• 5.
  Teenage pregnancy (for females).
• 6.
  HIV risk behavior.
• 7.
  Educational deficits.
• 8.
  Poor family and social functioning, including a seriously troubled home life and weak family structure.
• 9.
  Lack of positive identification with adults.
• 10.
  Poverty.
• 11.
  Low self-esteem.
• 12.
  Alienation from school or family.

These factors also match those found in theories of delinquency and are supported by years of research. To the extent that some can be resolved, the probability of delinquency decreases. Thus the juvenile court and the persons doing the assessment seek to locate solutions once the assessment is made and problems identified.

Service Brokerage

The concept of service brokering implies that, based on needs assessment, the treatment plans developed are tailored to the individual. Caseworkers or treatment teams prioritize certain types of treatment, such as drug addiction, educational problems, emotional needs, family environment, and the like, and choose available placements from their networks. While needs vary immensely among individuals, the services offered are often contracted among a limited number of vendors or providers, or are programs open to the public. Therefore, services available to delinquents are often part of an established, consistent system of interagency cooperation.

The State of Juvenile Needs Assessments

Even though we have described needs assessments as routine and part of the juvenile court and probation process, the fact is that most states do not have formal, systemwide needs assessment procedures. All states do, however, have some form of needs assessment, although they appear at various points in the juvenile justice process. A 1992 survey (Towberman, 1992) found that the most frequently measured needs were substance [Page 17]abuse, emotional and/or psychological dysfunction, violent behavior, sexual abuse and deviancy, family dysfunction, peer association problems, educational and vocational deficits, and physical problems.

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