Juvenile Justice

The violent crime rate among American Indians is twice that of the United States as a whole. Tribal communities are also beset by high rates of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, alcohol abuse, and gang involvement. Given such factors, it is not surprising that tribal youth are exposed to multiple risk factors for delinquency. Indeed, while the violent crime rate for U.S. youth has steadily declined over the past several years, the rate of violent juvenile crime in tribal communities continues to grow. Risk factors for delinquency for the nearly 2 million American Indians who live on or near tribal lands are compounded by a lack of social services.

Tribal communities are challenged by inadequate resources for their juvenile justice systems, resulting in insufficient training of law enforcement and other justice personnel and a dearth of programs that comprehensively combat juvenile delinquency through appropriate prevention, intervention, and sanction activities.

"American Indian/Alaska Native Youth & Status Offense Disparities: A Call For Tribal Initiatives, Coordination & Federal Funding" (2015) Co-written by the Tribal Law and Policy Institute and the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, examines the disparities faced in the state system by AI/AN youth who are charged with status offenses, the ability of both state and tribal systems to respond to status offenses, and federal funding levels to support efforts to better serve these youth. 

American Indian / Alaska Native (AI/AN) Children Exposed to Violence - This page provides an overview of resources related to issues of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children exposed to violence. Primarily, this page provides information concerning the work of the Task Force on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence which was part of the Defending Childhood Initiative undertaken under the leadership of then Attorney General, Eric Holder Jr..

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

The Tribal Youth Program (TYP) is managed and funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

The National Gang Center (NGC) is a project jointly funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The NGC disseminates information, knowledge, and outcome‐driven practices that engage and empower those in local communities with chronic and emerging gang problems to create comprehensive solutions to prevent gang violence, reduce gang involvement, and suppress gang‐related crime.

American Indian/Alaska Native Youth Publications

Youth Gangs in Indian Country, by Aline K. Major, Arlen Egley, Jr., James C. Howell, Barbara Mendenhall, and Troy Armstrong, OJJDP Juvenile Justice Bulletin, March 2004, describes the nature and makeup of youth gangs in Indian Country by drawing on research findings from a survey conducted by the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC). To better understand the gang problem in Indian Country, the Bulletin compares data from NYGC’s 2000 Survey of Youth Gangs in Indian Country with data from a national sample of survey respondents and from a field study of gangs in the Navajo Nation. Drawing on these research findings, the Bulletin proposes proven prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies to address the problem of youth gangs in Indian Country.

New Mexico Juvenile Justice Tribal Notification Policy Research Project: Final Report (March 2015) considers the efficacy of tribal notification as it is currently implemented and how it can be adjusted to work more effectively and become a model to improve outcomes for Native youth in the juvenile justice system across Indian Country.

Building Culturally Relevant Youth Courts in Tribal Communities, by Ada Pecos Melton, Selected Topics on Youth Courts Monograph, OJJDP and NHTSA, May 2004, provides readers with a brief background of tribal justice systems and to provide an overview of some of the unique issues to consider when developing and implementing youth courts in AI/AN communities. The need for youth courts is discussed, and strategies to design culturally relevant youth courts in AI/AN communities are highlighted.

Collaboration and Resource Sharing to Improve Services to Indian Youth  Ada Pecos Melton, American Indian Development Associates, March 2002, highlights successful resource sharing strategies that represents commitment to something larger than the single focused organizational goals and objectives and a shift to enter into relationships with other agencies to achieve shared goals, visions and responses to mutual interest and obligations.

Promising Practices and Strategies to Reduce Alcohol and Substance Abuse Among American Indians and Alaska Natives, American Indian Development Associates, August 2000, features promising practices to highlight effective solutions developed within the tribal community that combine western and traditional approaches, building upon the strengths of the respective Indian communities. The publication’s three sections including Section i: Promising Programs and Initiatives, Section II: Literature Review and Selected Bibliography, and Section II: Selected Resource List.

Juvenile Justice Code Resources

Tribal Legal Code Resource: Juvenile Justice: Guide for Drafting or Revising Tribal Juvenile Delinquency and Status Offense Laws, Pat Sekaquaptewa, Abby Abinanti, Maureen White Eagle, and Chia Halpern Beetso, Tribal Law and Policy Institute, June 2015.

Part I: Overview

• Chapter 1: How to Start a Juvenile Code Development Project
• Chapter 2: Preliminary Choices to Guide Code Development
• Chapter 3: What Is Needed—Assessing Resources
• Chapter 4: Criminal Offenses

Part II: Workbook

• Chapter 5: General Provisions of the Juvenile Justice Code
• Chapter 6: Subject Matter Jurisdiction
• Chapter 7: Juvenile Offenses
• Chapter 8: Transfer to Tribal Criminal Court (Or Other Jurisdictions)
• Chapter 9: Relations with Other Agencies and Courts
• Chapter 10: Juvenile Court Records
• Chapter 11: Rights in Juvenile Proceedings
• Chapter 12: Evidentiary Rules in Juvenile Proceedings
• Chapter 13: Taking a Child into Custody
• Chapter 14: Detention Hearings
• Chapter 15: Informal Adjustment in Juvenile Proceedings
• Chapter 16: Petition for Juvenile Offender Proceedings
• Chapter 17: Presenting Officer/Prosecutor and Consent Decrees
• Chapter 18: Adjudications in Juvenile Proceedings
• Chapter 19: Predisposition Studies in Juvenile Proceedings
• Chapter 20: Disposition in Juvenile Proceedings
• Chapter 21: Nondelinquency Proceedings—Status Offenses/Family in Need of Services (FINS)
• Chapter 22: Nondelinquency Proceedings—Family in Need of Services (FINS) Interim Care
• Chapter 23: Nondelinquency Proceedings—Stand-Alone Status Offenses
• Chapter 24: Nondelinquency Proceedings—Family in Need of Services (FINS) Referral to Juvenile Counselor
• Chapter 25: Nondelinquency Proceedings—Family in Need of Services (FINS) Breakdown in Parent-Child Relationship
• Chapter 26: Nondelinquency Proceedings—Family in Need of Services (FINS) Consent Decress
• Chapter 27: Nondelinquency Proceedings—Family in Need of Services (FINS) Dispositions
• Chapter 28: Nondelinquency Proceedings—Truancy Provisions
• Chapter 29: Trauma-Sensitive Statutory Provisions
• Chapter 30: Integrating Culture, Customs, Traditions, and Generally Accepted Practices
• Chapter 31 Tribal Healing to Wellness Court
• Chapter 32: Peacemaking Courts
• Chapter 33: Teen Courts
• Glossary
• Helpful Resources

Tribal Healing to Wellness Court: The Policies and Procedures Guide, Pat Sekaquaptewa and Lauren van Schilfgaarde, Tribal Law and Policy Institute, November 2015

• Chapter 1: The Big Picture and Target Population
• Chapter 2: Entry into Wellness Court and Team and Participant Rules
• Chapter 3: Team Roles and Responsibilities
• Chapter 4: Treatment and Phase Systems
• Chapter 5: The Judge and Wellness Court Staffing and Hearings
• Chapter 6: Probation, Case Manager, or Other Supervision
• Chapter 7: Alcohol and Drug Testing
• Chapter 8: Data Tracking and Evaluation
• Chapter 9: Wellness Team
• Chapter 10: Appendices to Tribal Policies and Procedures Manual
• Chapter 11: Participant Handbooks
• Chapter 12: Statutory Provisions
• Chapter 13: Agreements

Model Tribal Juvenile Code, Matthew Ficcaglia and Prof. Ron J. Whitener, University of Washington Native American Law Center (2016 Revision)

• Chapter 1: General Provisions
• Chapter 2: Delinquency
• Chapter 3: Child-In-Need of Services
• Chapter 4: Truancy

1989 BIA Tribal Juvenile Justice Code

The following tribal juvenile justice code was developed by the National Indian Justice Center in 1989 for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in order to comply with a requirement in the 1986 Omnibus Drug and Alcohol Act for the BIA to develop a model tribal juvenile code. Each section of the table of contents is hyperlinked to the corresponding section of the code. The complete code is also available for Download in Microsoft Word 6 format.