Family Courts

This is a model that uses a conceptual plan and organizational framework to strengthen collaborations between child welfare and juvenile justice system professionals and partners to prevent or reduce youths’ involvement in the juvenile justice system or related systems of care. The program is rated Promising. Treatment group youth showed a statistically significant reduction in recidivism rates, compared with youth in the comparison groups.

This adapted version of Functional Family Therapy is designed to improve functioning for child welfare-involved families. This program is rated Promising. Treatment families showed a statistically significant greater likelihood of achieving all treatment goals and a lower likelihood of being referred to another program at case closing, compared with control families. However, there were no statistically significant differences between groups in out-of-home placements.

This program is designed to find and engage kin and fictive kin to support the needs of foster care youth. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant greater number of kin and fictive kin found and positive attachment figures identified for the intervention group, compared with the comparison group. However, there was no significant difference in proportion of relative placements to total placements, reunification rates, or externalizing and internalizing behaviors.

This is a program for parents who have substance abuse allegations and are involved in the child welfare system. The program is rated Effective. The study found that parent participants were more likely to have their children returned, more likely to experience a permanency-planning outcome, and less likely to have their parental rights terminated. Additionally, children of program participants spent less time in the child welfare system. These findings were statistically significant.

This program consists of a specialized court for substance-using caregivers involved with the child welfare system. The program is rated Promising. Program participants showed a statistically significant higher likelihood of family reunification and a lower likelihood that children would reenter care after permanent reunification. However, families that participated in the program achieved permanency at a statistically significant slower rate, compared with families that did not participate.

This is a treatment court dedicated to cases of child abuse and neglect, in which parental substance abuse is one of the primary reasons for child welfare involvement. The program provides parenting training in conjunction with substance abuse treatment to increase the likelihood of reunification. The program is rated Effective. Families who received services through the Family Drug Court were statistically significantly more likely to reunify than comparison families.

This is a problem-solving community court that seeks to prevent crime. One component of the program, the Criminal Court, hears misdemeanor cases and seeks to provide quick and meaningful sanctions to defendants in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The program was rated Promising. The program had a statistically significant impact on recidivism rates for defendants.

The program is a problem-solving court that operate a specialized caseload for domestic violence-related cases only, and for which eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis. Criminal domestic violence courts tend to be more common throughout the U.S. The program is rated No Effects. The criminal domestic violence courts in New York statistically significantly reduced case-processing time, but there was no statistically significant impact on recidivism.

This program is a problem-solving court that is part of a unified “one family-one judge” model, which means all criminal, family, and matrimonial cases involving the same family are handled by one judge. This program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences in re-arrests and conviction rates when comparing the IDV court cases with traditional family court cases.

This is a problem-solving community court that seeks to prevent crime. One component of the program, the Family Court, hears juvenile delinquency cases involving youth aged 15 or younger, with the goal of responding to the specific needs of youth in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The program was rated No Effects. The program had no significant effect on recidivism rates for juvenile defendants.

This is a diversion program for young persons. The primary goal of the program is to reduce the occurrence of juvenile crime by diverting youth from the traditional juvenile justice system and providing an alternative to formal processing. The program is rated Promising. Treatment group youth were statistically significantly less likely to reoffend, compared with control group youth.

This is a nonpunitive treatment model that concentrates on teaching juvenile justice–involved youth about prosocial behaviors as alternatives to antisocial behaviors. The program is rated Promising. Overall, findings were mixed. Treatment group youth had a statistically significant lower likelihood of being convicted for any new offense, compared with control group youth. However, there were no statistically significant effects on new charges or on incarceration rates.

This is a family drug court program designed to serve families involved with child welfare as a result of parental substance use. The program is rated Promising. Treatment group parents had a statistically significant higher percentage of experiencing family reunification, compared with comparison group parents. Children of treatment group parents also had a statistically significant fewer number of days in non-kinship or long-term foster care compared with children of comparison group parents.

This program is for parents whose children are wards of the state. The program is rated Effective. Intervention parents had statistically significant improvements in treatment outcomes and lower rates of rearrest, compared with control parents. Children of intervention parents experienced statistically significant improvements in child welfare outcomes, compared with children of control group participants. There were no significant differences between groups for placement stability.

This is a gender-specific, family-based intervention designed to help drug-using mothers who participate in family drug court to maintain their parental rights. The program is rated No Effects. The program had no statistically significant effects on child welfare outcomes, self-reported drug use, physical child abuse potential, overall psychological stress, self-reported alcohol use, family and social functioning, psychiatric problems, and urinalysis results.