Re: Child Protection / Youth Justice continuum

[<FrampD@xxxxxxx>]

Mr. Lloyd:

Much has been written in this country about the link between childhood
maltreatment and juvenile offenses.  Many states have one system that responds
to both.  Although South Carolina has separate child protection and juvenile
prosecution systems, for many years one prosecution office represented the
State in both systems before the Family Courts.  I did both for many years.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) of the U.S.
Department of Justice (http://www.ncjrs.org/ojjdp/) has conducted a great deal
of research on the connection between childhood maltreatment and delinquent
behavior.  A program in the early '90s called SHOCAP (Serious Habitual
Offender Comprehensive Action Project) collected that research into a model
profile of a "typical" serious juvenile offender, and found that (1) the vast
majority of adults in South Carolina Adult Penal Institutions have a juvenile
record; (2) the vast majority of serious juvenile offenders have a history of
physical/educational neglect or abuse.  The profile developed involves a
progression from neglect to truancy to minor property crimes (joy-riding, shop
lifting, etc.) to major property crimes (car theft, burglary) to minor violent
offenses to major violent offenses; although the number of offenses per year
decreases as the child gets older, the severity of the offenses increases.
The peak of criminal behavior at the time of the studies was about age 16, but
it is moving backwards.

Coupled with this is a diagnostic difficulty in addressing childhood
behavioral problems.  Symtoms of trauma are similar to other behavioral
difficulties in children, and a PTSD diagnosis may be missed because of the
context of the evaluation.  In other words, if a child is evaluated (and I am
certainly referring to an evaluation by an inexperienced professional) in the
context of a child protection action, symtoms may be related to trauma, while
if the same child is evaluated in the context of a juvenile prosecution, the
diagnosis may be ADHD or Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).  A wonderful
article on this, which I have often used, is in the Journal of the Americal
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34:10 at page 1384, titled
"Relationaip between Early Abuse, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Activity
Levels in Prepubertal Children" by Carol A. Glod, Ph.D., R.N.C.S., and Martin
H. Teicher, M.D., Ph.D.

Other WEB resources which may be a benefit to you include the American Bar
Association site on Children and the Law (http://www.abanet.org/child) and the
NCJRS Home Page (http://www.ncjrs.org), as well as, of course, this Cornell
site.

Good luck --

Frampton Durban, Jr.
Chief Legal Counsel
Charleston County DSS
3366 Rivers Avenue
North Charleston, SC 29405
(843) 740-0625 voice
(843) 740-0629 FAX
FrampD@xxxxxxx