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The purpose of this study is to examine issues in measuring perceptions of police useof-force incidents. The Force Factor developed by Alpert and Dunham in 1997 is assessed as an objective, use-of-force measure by comparing it to several previously used measures of the perceived legitimacy of force used by officers in arrest situations. Findings indicate that few predictor variables are consistently related to the various measures of perceptions of the legitimacy of a single use-of-force incident. While the Force Factor uniquely considers level of suspect resistance, it does not appear to overcome perceptual biases inherent to measures of police use-of-force incidents.

Nationally, well over half of juvenile justice-involved youth report behavioral health impairment. Although the juvenile justice system may be the first place a youth is screened for behavioral health problems, the system is often ill-prepared to properly treat these youth. In response to the growing number of youth entering the juvenile justice system with behavioral health issues and the lack of proper care in these facilities, many communities have developed diversion programs as an alternative to detention. The current study investigated Ohio's Behavioral Health Juvenile Justice (BHJJ) program, a diversion program for juvenile justice-involved youth with behavioral health issues that provides evidence-and community-based behavioral health treatment. Results indicated BHJJ was effective at improving behavioral health outcomes, including general functioning and trauma symptomatology, and reducing future delinquency. Analyses also examined the variables that predicted successful treatment completion and future adjudications. Implications for juvenile justice programming and policy are discussed.

Exposure to violence is a widespread problem that affects the mental health of children and adolescents particularly in at-risk populations such as juvenile justice involved youth. While a number of studies have examined the cumulative impact of violence exposure, few studies have examined the importance of social context. The present study examined classifications of youth exposed to violence by contextual location (home, school, and neighborhood) in a sample of 2,124 juvenile justice involved youth. Latent class analysis revealed three classes of youth exposed to violence: (a) low violence exposure, (b) moderate and high home/school violence exposure, and (c) violence exposure in all three social contexts. Furthermore, distal outcomes analysis showed differences in internalizing and externalizing problems based on class membership. Findings from the current study underline the importance of understanding the role of social context in assessing violence exposure in juvenile justice involved youth.

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