Juvenile Diversion Programs

According to the Boy Scouts of America (2005), juvenile diversion refers to the act that “seeks to improve a youth’s self-image, social skills, and attitude about the legal system, and aims to teach the youth better methods of communication” (2). The goal, on the other hand, is “to reduce the rates of youth being rearrested” (Boy Scouts of America 2). The mission is to provide “a positive alternative to formal court processing for motivated first-time misdemeanor offenders.

As indicated by Kathleen Skowyra and Susan Davidson Powell (2006) in their article ‘Juvenile Diversion: Programs for Justice-Involved Youth with Mental Health Disorder’, “Over 2. 3 million youth are arrested each year. Approximately 600,000 of these youth are processed through juvenile detention centers and more than 100,000 are placed in secure juvenile correctional facilities” (1). For this Zogby International conducted a national poll concerning how Americans think and respond with the nation’s increase in youth crime.