The Effects of the Harlem Housing Court on Tenant Perceptions of Justice -- NEW
By Rashida Abuwala and Donald Farole, Jr.
This study examines the perceptions of self-represented tenants in two New York City housing courts: an innovative community housing court at the Harlem Community Justice Center and the centralized Manhattan housing court. Based on structured interviews and court observation, we find that while tenants in both locations provided favorable evaluations of their court experience, Harlem tenants viewed the experience in more positive terms. We also find that tenants in Harlem had more positive perceptions of their housing court experience in large part because they were more likely to perceive the court process and outcome as fair.
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Community Courts Across the Globe: A Survey of Goals, Performance Measures and Operations
By Diana Karafin
There are currently more than 50 community courts open in the U.S. and internationally. By the end of 2008, that number is expected to grow to as many as 79. Given this context of a burgeoning international community court movement, coupled with pressing questions about how to adapt the model to diverse settings, the Open Society Foundation for South Africa commissioned the Center for Court Innovation to conduct a systematic survey of community courts around the world (other than South Africa).
link provided by the Open Society Foundation's web site
Examining Defendant Perceptions of Fairness in the Courtroom
By Somjen Frazer
A brief article highlighting the major findings and implications of the Center's comparison of defendant perceptions of fairness at the Red Hook Community Justice Center and a nearby "downtown" criminal court. Published in Judicature, Volume 91, Number 1 (July-August 2007).
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Does Judicial Monitoring Deter Domestic Violence Recidivism? Results of a Quasi-Experimental Comparison in the Bronx
By Robert Davis, Melissa Labriola, and Michael Rempel
A study of the impact of intensive judicial monitoring with convicted domestic violence offenders. Key findings are also presented in Chapter Six of Testing the Effectiveness of Batterer Programs and Judicial Monitoring Published in Violence Against Women, Volume 14, Number 2 (February 2008).
available from Sage Journals online
Introduction to Problem Solving: Key Issues and Challenges
This curriculum is based on the agendas and participant handbooks created for two workshops held for grante sites under the Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice. Intended to provide practitioners with the tools to initiate their own problem-solving initiative, it includes a number of resources that can be adapted for a variety of purposes. It is intended to assist court managers, judicial trainers, and other in putting on trainings at the local level, creating agendas and participant handbooks based on these materials. The hope is that it will help jurisdictions train their local system players in planning and implementing a community-based problem-solving criminal justice initiative.
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Problem-Solving and the American Bench: A National Survey of Trial Court Judges
By Francine Byrne, Yueh-Wen Chang, Donald Farole, Jr., and Michael Rempel
A nationwide survey of more than 1,000 trial court judges concerning their attitudes and practices with respect to problem-solving. The results indicate broad support for problem-solving methods and offer encouraging news for those interested in integrating problem-solving court principles in conventional court settings. The results also identify important obstacles, including limited resources and a need for greater education and training of judges.
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Bridging Theory and Practice: A Roundtable about Court Responses to Domestic Violence
By Carolyn Turgeon
An edited transcript of a daylong conversation among 20 national experts as they explored options for improving criminal court responses to domestic violence, with particular focus on batterer program mandates, judicial monitoring, probation supervision, and victim advocacy.
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Public Perceptions of Neighborhood Quality of Life and Safety in Five New York City Communities: Results from Operation Data, 2004-2005
By Amanda Cissner, Sarah Custer, and Rachel Finkelstein
Based on surveys conducted in 2004 and 2005, this report documents community feedback on quality of life, public safety, community resources, and criminal justice agencies in five New York City neighborhoods. Results are broken out by neighborhood and further analyzed based on respondent demographics.
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Bringing Domestic Violence Best Practices to New York's Town and Village Courts
By Amanda Cissner
Based on findings from a recent training series, this descriptive study documents the current domestic violence policies and practices of town and village justice courts located in one rural county of upstate, New York. The report highlights the challenges faced by many rural jurisdictions in implementing domestic violence best practices and measures the effectiveness of a traditional training for small jurisdictions.
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A Comparison of Two Prosecution Policies in Cases of Intimate Partner Violence: Mandatory Case Filing vs. Following the Victim’s Lead (COMPLETE DOCUMENT)
By Robert Davis, Donald Farole, Jr., Chris O'Sullivan, and Michael Rempel
Whether prosecution should proceed in domestic violence cases without the support of the victim is an important question with valid theoretical arguments on each side but a dearth of empirical data. This study compared case outcomes, victim satisfaction, and costs in a jurisdiction where the DA’s Office typically declines to file cases when the victim opposes prosecution (the Bronx) with a jurisdiction where the DA’s Office has a universal filing policy (Brooklyn).
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A Comparison of Two Prosecution Policies in Cases of Intimate Partner Violence: Mandatory Case Filing vs. Following the Victim’s Lead (EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ONLY)
By Robert Davis, Donald Farole, Jr., Chris O'Sullivan, and Michael Rempel
Whether prosecution should proceed in domestic violence cases without the support of the victim is an important question with valid theoretical arguments on each side but a dearth of empirical data. This study compared case outcomes, victim satisfaction, and costs in a jurisdiction where the DA’s Office typically declines to file cases when the victim opposes prosecution (the Bronx) with a jurisdiction where the DA’s Office has a universal filing policy (Brooklyn).
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Principles of Problem-Solving Justice
By Robert V. Wolf
An examination of the six principles that animate problem-solving justice. The principles are based on the Center for Court Innovation’s experience developing problem-solving initiatives, an analysis of problem-solving projects from across the country, and feedback from leading practitioners.
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Expanding the Use of Problem Solving: The U.S. Department of Justice’s Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative
By Robert V. Wolf
An in-depth look at the 10 projects awarded grants under the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. All the grantees are trying something new: expanding problem solving to include new populations, new geographic territory, or new agencies within the criminal justice system.
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Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Lessons from Problem-Solving Courts
By Robert V. Wolf
A review of nine practical strategies to break down the conceptual and in some cases practical barriers that separate specialized courts from each other and the world of problem-solving from traditional courts.
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Trial and Error: Failure and Innovation in Criminal Justice Reform
By Greg Berman, Phillip Bowen, and Adam Mansky
This "red paper" is about the kinds of failures in which well intended efforts fall short of their objective. The product of semi-structured interviews with criminal justice experts, researchers and practitioners, as well as a review of the literature on failure, it seeks to provoke debate as to why some criminal justice reforms work and why some do not. By discussing failure openly, this paper seeks to help foster an environment of new thinking and the testing of new ideas.
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Learning from Failure: A Roundtable on Criminal Justice Innovation
By Greg Berman
In January 2007, the Center for Court Innovation and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance convened a day-long roundtable in New York that brought together judges, court administrators, probation officials, prosecutors, police chiefs and defense attorneys from across the country to discuss lessons they have learned from projects that did not succeed. The goal was to take a deeper look at failed reform efforts and extract concrete lessons that might aid the next generation of innovators, as well as those who authorize and fund innovation.
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Process Evaluation of the Bronx Juvenile Accountability Court
By Melissa Labriola
This report presents a process evaluation of the first five years of the Bronx Juvenile Accountability Court (JAC), including a description of the model, accomplishments, implementation challenges, stakeholder perceptions, and future directions.
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Step Up, Step Out: Recommendations to Improve Youth Participation in New York City's Permanency Planning Process
By Members of the Youth Justice Board
Written by the 16 teenage members of the 2006-2007 Youth Justice Board, this report proposes 14 specific recommendations to improve the court experiences and outcomes for adolescents in foster care. The Youth Justice Board, which consists of New York City high schools students 15 to 19 years old, spent several months researching New York's permanency planning process--interviewing over 40 child welfare and court professionals, conducting two focus groups of youth in care and observing Family Court proceedings in Kings County, Bronx County and New York County Family Courts.
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Building Trust and Managing Risk: A Look at a Felony Mental Health Court
A detailed look at a one of the first felony mental health courts in the country, this article describes why the court's planning team chose to focus on felonies rather than misdemeanors and how the court and its partners manage potential public safety risks.
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Child Support Protocol: A Guide for Integrated Domestic Violence Courts
By Liberty Aldrich and Judy Reichler
A paper outlining best practice recommendations for courts hearing domestic violence cases, emphasizing that judges should consider financial support and other issues with victim safety in mind.
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