The following resources provide information about serving youth who are involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, sometimes also known as cross-over, joint cases, dual-system served, or multi-system involved youth. Includes State and local examples.
Addressing the Needs of Multi-System Youth: Strengthening the Connection between Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice (PDF - 2580 KB)
The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform & Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps (2011)
Provides communities with a consolidated framework for serving crossover youth that incorporates the most up-to-date research, lessons from ongoing reform efforts, and an innovative collaborative management structure.
Addressing the Needs of Youth Known to Both the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems (PDF - 3976 KB)
National Center for State Courts (2010)
Discusses innovative practices courts can implement to serve children who come to their attention through multiple systems and reduce the risk of youth's involvement with the juvenile justice system.
Crossover Cases: Children and Youth Involved in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems
Judges' Page Newsletter, March 2010
Provides a review of issues and challenges central to the management of crossover cases, calling attention to the need for collaboration and coordination among public agencies, attorneys, judges, and CASA volunteers.
From Conversation to Collaboration: How Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Agencies Can Work Together to Improve Outcomes for Dual Status Youth
Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice (2014)
Discusses the challenges of providing services to youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, highlights strategies that youth-serving systems can apply to begin developing a more integrated approach, and looks at examples where system integration and coordination led to profound transformations with better outcomes for youth and communities. The report begins by explaining why agencies need to focus on dual status youth and then describes how collaboration can help.
Juvenile Justice and Child Protection (PDF - 1,005 KB)
Grayson (2014)
James Madison University Department of Psychology
Explains the overlapping populations of youth involved in the child welfare system and who are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system. The article includes characteristics of delinquency cases and maltreated children who become delinquent, risk factors, mental health needs of youth in the criminal justice system, challenges to agency collaboration, and promising strategies for service integration are discussed.
Juvenile Justice Division
Child Welfare League of America
Underlines the connection between child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency and supports the implementation of innovative programs and practices through systems integration, collaboration, and reform.
Juvenile Reentry
Council of State Governments Justice Center & National Reentry Resource Center
Provides research and resources on reducing recidivism and improving other outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system.
Making the Case for Status Offense Systems Change: A Toolkit (PDF - 1,827 KB)
Coalition for Juvenile Justice (2014)
Provides judges, juvenile justice professionals, and advocates the tools they need to educate others about status offenses and the need for better responses to youth charged with these behaviors. It contains talking points on status offenses, a fact sheet that debunks myths about status offenses, a PowerPoint on improving responses to youth charged with status offenses, a brief overview of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice's National Standards for the Care of Youth Charged with Status Offenses, and additional resources.
Supporting the Needs of Students Involved With the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice System in the School District of Philadelphia (PDF - 5,916 KB)
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute & PolicyLab (2014)
Examines the distribution, concentration, and academic outcomes of youth in Philadelphia's public schools who are involved with the child welfare and/or juvenile justice system. The research was requested to inform policy decisions intended to improve educational success for youth involved with Department of Human Services in Philadelphia.
Systems Integration: Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice (PDF - 483 KB)
Fromknecht (2014)
Juvenile Justice Geography, Policy, Practice & Statistics State Scan
Presents the results of a semi-structured survey of the State-level efforts to coordinate information and practice during the winter of 2014 through the lens of how centralized or decentralized the social service systems are in the respective States.
Trauma in Dual Status Youth: Putting Things in Perspective (PDF - 866 KB)
Grisso and Vincent (2014)
Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, Children's Action Corps.
Provides information on trauma-related procedures for use with dual status youth—children and adolescents who come into contact with both child welfare and juvenile justice systems. This article describes generally the state of our understanding of the prevalence of trauma-based behavior problems and considerations in designing agreed-upon best practices to identify them. It explores the importance of clearly defining one's objectives for identifying trauma in youth, discusses the broad types of screening and assessments available for use in identification, and highlights important issues of implementation.
State and local examples
Crossover Youth (PDF - 148 KB)
Janku & Yan (2010)
State of Missouri Office of State Courts Administrator, Research Brief No. 31
Utilizes research findings to define individual and systemic needs of crossover youth in contrast with other youth who come in contact with the juvenile justice system and recommends integrated agency approaches to working with the crossover population.
Doorways to Delinquency: Multi-System Involvement of Delinquent Youth in King County (PDF - 353 KB)
National Center for Juvenile Justice (2011)
Highlights findings from a study that examines the prevalence of multisystem involvement among youth referred to the King County Juvenile Court on delinquency matters in 2006. Poorer juvenile justice outcomes were associated with youth who had more extensive child welfare system involvement.
"We Just Want to be Heard." Recommendations to Improve the Lives of Maryland's Dually Involved Girls (PDF - 648 KB)
Advocates for Children and Youth (2014)
Reports on findings from a research project to better understand the needs of dually involved girls in Maryland and to improve their outcomes. Recommendations for improving services to dually involved girls include: prioritize a gender responsive approach; expand trauma-informed policies, programs, and practices; support placement stability and permanent relationships; improve data collection; increase cross-systems collaboration; and expand training opportunities.