Evaluation of United Youth Courts of Alaska

United Youth Courts of Alaska (UYCA) provides support and assistance to youth courts in 14 Alaska communities— Kotzebue, Nome, Fairbanks, Delta Junction, Mat-Su, Anchorage, Kenai/Homer, Kodiak, Valdez, Juneau, Kake, Sitka, Wrangell, and Ketchikan. Youth courts act as a restorative justice alternative to the formal juvenile justice system for minor and first-time offenders. The youth court process is entirely handled by youth volunteers who have received special training in informally adjudicating other youth. Youth offenders referred to youth courts typically are required to perform community service, to write essays describing the harm they have caused to victims, parents, and society, to attend classes (such as anti-shoplifiting classes), or other such informal adjustments.

The effectiveness of the youth court model is demonstrable. A 2002 evaluation of Anchorage Youth Court by the Urban Institute found that only 6 percent of youths sentenced through the youth court reoffended within a six-month period after their sentence, compared with 23 percent of comparable youths sentenced through the formal juvenile justice system. This represents a 74 percent reduction in recidivism by the youth cours over the formal system.

Through this project, UAA students under the direction of UAA faculty members André Rosay (Justice Center), Gale Smoke (Sociology), and Krista Scully (Human Services) conducted a collaborative reseach project to evaluate UYCA through three simultaneous focus groups conducted at the the Seventh Annual Statewide Youth Court Conference held in Anchorage in November 2003. The evaluation focused on ways to improve recruitment and retention of youth court volunteers.