FAQs about Juvenile Probation - The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Frequently Asked Questions About Juvenile Probation

Posted November 2, 2021
By the Annie E. Casey Foundation
Young man with hoodie and backpack walk out door

Youth pro­ba­tion is the most com­mon out­come in cas­es referred to juve­nile delin­quen­cy courts in the Unit­ed States year after year. At its best, pro­ba­tion offers court-involved juve­niles the chance to remain in their com­mu­ni­ty and be con­nect­ed to con­struc­tive and ther­a­peu­tic activ­i­ties rather than being incar­cer­at­ed. How­ev­er, pro­ba­tion can also become a gate­way to unnec­es­sary con­fine­ment for youth who frus­trate author­i­ties with non­com­pli­ant behav­ior, but pose min­i­mal risk to pub­lic safe­ty. This over­re­liance on con­fine­ment dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affects youth of col­or and exac­er­bates the already severe racial and eth­nic dis­par­i­ties plagu­ing juve­nile justice.

Since 2018, many experts in the juve­nile jus­tice field have joined the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion in call­ing for fun­da­men­tal changes in juve­nile pro­ba­tion poli­cies and prac­tices to bet­ter align pro­ba­tion with avail­able research on ado­les­cence and with evi­dence about what works to steer young peo­ple to suc­cess.

Learn about Casey’s com­mit­ment to trans­form­ing juve­nile probation

What is Juve­nile Probation?

Juve­nile pro­ba­tion — also known as youth pro­ba­tion — is a court-imposed inter­ven­tion dur­ing which young peo­ple remain at home under the super­vi­sion of a juve­nile pro­ba­tion offi­cer. While on pro­ba­tion, young peo­ple are typ­i­cal­ly required to adhere to rules and con­di­tions includ­ed in their pro­ba­tion orders, such as cur­fews, ran­dom search­es and pro­hi­bi­tions on who they may asso­ciate with, and to check in reg­u­lar­ly with their pro­ba­tion offi­cers, par­tic­i­pate in manda­to­ry meet­ings, per­form com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice or pay restitution.

Key Sta­tis­tics About Juve­nile Probation

How many young peo­ple are placed on juve­nile pro­ba­tion each year?

In 2019, rough­ly 265,000 youth were placed on pro­ba­tion by juve­nile courts nation­wide. Pro­ba­tion is the most com­mon dis­po­si­tion in youth justice.

Why are youth placed on juve­nile probation?

Most youth on pro­ba­tion have minor offend­ing his­to­ries. More than half of youth added to pro­ba­tion case­loads in 2019 were placed there infor­mal­ly, with­out being found delin­quent by a juve­nile court, or were adju­di­cat­ed for a sta­tus offense, an offense that would not be ille­gal if com­mit­ted by an adult, such as tru­an­cy, under­age drink­ing or run­ning away from home.

Oth­er com­mon offense types for youth on pro­ba­tion include dis­or­der­ly con­duct, van­dal­ism and tres­pass­ing. Just 9% of juve­niles placed on pro­ba­tion in 2019 were charged with seri­ous vio­lent crimes, and 21% were charged with seri­ous prop­er­ty crimes, such as bur­glary or car theft.

How old are youth when they are placed on probation?

Most youth (80%) are ages 14, 15, 16 or 17 when they are placed on juve­nile pro­ba­tion. Some states place chil­dren as young as 10 years old on probation.

Does juve­nile pro­ba­tion end when a youth turns 18?

A per­son can be on juve­nile pro­ba­tion over age 18 for offens­es com­mit­ted before they turned 18. In most states, once placed on pro­ba­tion, youth can remain on pro­ba­tion until age 21.

What is the racial make­up of youth on probation?

Youth of col­or — pri­mar­i­ly Black and Amer­i­can Indi­an youth — are over­rep­re­sent­ed on pro­ba­tion case­loads, just as they are in all oth­er phas­es of the juve­nile court process. In 2019, Black youth were placed on pro­ba­tion at three times the rate as white youth accord­ing to fed­er­al data. The rate for Amer­i­can Indi­an youth exceed­ed that of their white peers by two and half times. The rate for Lati­no youth was also high­er than for white youth, but incon­sis­tent data cat­e­gories and report­ing prac­tices among juve­nile jus­tice agen­cies’ demo­graph­ic data about Lati­no youth make that num­ber less exact. Of youth held in res­i­den­tial cus­tody in 2019 for tech­ni­cal vio­la­tions of pro­ba­tion — break­ing pro­ba­tion rules can be a gate­way to deep­er, more puni­tive sys­tem involve­ment — two-thirds were youth of col­or.

How many peo­ple work in youth probation?

Juve­nile pro­ba­tion agen­cies nation­wide employ 15,000 to 20,000 pro­fes­sion­als. The lion’s share work as pro­ba­tion offi­cers, some­times referred to as pro­ba­tion coun­selors, who direct­ly super­vise the cas­es of youth placed for­mal­ly or infor­mal­ly on pro­ba­tion caseloads.

What qual­i­fi­ca­tions do juve­nile pro­ba­tion offi­cers need?

In most states, pro­ba­tion offi­cers must have a bachelor’s degree in crim­i­nal jus­tice, psy­chol­o­gy, social work, coun­sel­ing, edu­ca­tion or a relat­ed field. The require­ments for pro­ba­tion per­son­nel are set at the state level.

Juve­nile Pro­ba­tion in Practice

What are terms and con­di­tions of juve­nile probation?

In most juris­dic­tions, pro­ba­tion orders include a list of as many as 30 con­di­tions, includ­ing many that are imposed on all youth regard­less of their indi­vid­ual cir­cum­stances. These may include cur­fews; resti­tu­tion and/​or com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice; manda­to­ry par­tic­i­pa­tion in meet­ings and treat­ment activ­i­ties; blan­ket require­ments to attend school and com­plete school assign­ments, obey par­ents and sub­mit to ran­dom search­es; wear an elec­tron­ic mon­i­tor­ing device; and pro­hi­bi­tions against asso­ci­at­ing with oth­ers who are on pro­ba­tion or have crim­i­nal or delin­quen­cy records. Youth are typ­i­cal­ly required to meet or check in with their pro­ba­tion offi­cer on a reg­u­lar basis.

Are stan­dard pro­ba­tion con­di­tions sup­port­ed by evidence?

No. The Nation­al Coun­cil of Juve­nile and Fam­i­ly Court Judges not­ed the use of stan­dard con­di­tions is root­ed in a sur­veil­lance-com­pli­ance mod­el of pro­ba­tion that… is con­tra­dict­ed by emerg­ing research on ado­les­cent devel­op­ment, and it has not proven effec­tive in lim­it­ing rear­rest rates or pro­mot­ing pos­i­tive behav­ior change.”

What hap­pens when young peo­ple vio­late the terms of their pro­ba­tion orders?

The con­se­quences for non-com­pli­ance with juve­nile pro­ba­tion rules can be severe. Youth placed for­mal­ly on pro­ba­tion after being adju­di­cat­ed delin­quent by a judge may be found in vio­la­tion of pro­ba­tion, fac­ing pun­ish­ments up to and includ­ing incar­cer­a­tion. Indeed, the lat­est nation­al data show that 14% of all youth con­fined in res­i­den­tial cus­tody by delin­quen­cy courts were charged with vio­lat­ing the tech­ni­cal terms of their pro­ba­tion, not break­ing the law.

For youth placed on infor­mal pro­ba­tion after being divert­ed from court, or as part of a con­sent decree or deferred pros­e­cu­tion agree­ment, fail­ing to fol­low pro­ba­tion rules can result in a return to court and for­mal adjudication.

What role do fam­i­lies play in juve­nile probation?

Research shows that par­ents and oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers and car­ing adults remain the most impor­tant influ­ences in ado­les­cents’ lives. The ties between young peo­ple and their fam­i­ly mem­bers and oth­er sup­port­ive adults, even when dam­aged or strained, are essen­tial for healthy devel­op­ment. When pro­ba­tion offi­cers pos­i­tive­ly engage with par­ents and oth­er sup­port­ive adults in a young person’s life to sup­port the youth, the youth is more like­ly to suc­ceed.

Are fines and fees asso­ci­at­ed with juve­nile probation?

Fam­i­ly mem­bers [or young peo­ple them­selves] are often required to pay fines and fees relat­ed to their children’s pro­ba­tion cas­es, despite research show­ing that these finan­cial oblig­a­tions are asso­ci­at­ed with worse out­comes for young peo­ple and harm youth and fam­i­lies of col­or dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly. In 2017, a nation­al study found that pro­ba­tion agen­cies in 29 states imposed super­vi­sion fees” or charged fam­i­lies for oth­er costs (court fees, diver­sion fees, evaluation/​testing, and more), though a num­ber of states have begun pro­hibit­ing these fees in recent years.

How much time does a young per­son spend on juve­nile probation?

The aver­age dura­tion of pro­ba­tion varies wide­ly from juris­dic­tion to juris­dic­tion, from less than one year to over two years. This pro­ba­tion­ary peri­od is longer than experts recommend.

Does evi­dence show that juve­nile pro­ba­tion works?

Research indi­cates that sur­veil­lance-ori­ent­ed pro­ba­tion is not an effec­tive strat­e­gy for revers­ing delin­quent behav­ior, with insignif­i­cant effects on reof­fend­ing and espe­cial­ly poor results with youth at low risk of rearrest.

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