Youth have a right to free legal counsel, but the effectiveness of youth defense practices is unclear.

In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in In re Gault that the Constitutional right to free legal counsel applied to youth in delinquency proceedings. However, the Court did not specify how legal counsel should be provided in cases when youth and their families could not afford to hire an attorney. As a result, legal counsel for youth is comprised of a patchwork of systems, which include public defender offices, assigned counsel systems, and contract systems.

While criminal and juvenile justice reform efforts have increasingly relied on sound research to measure the impact of effective policies, practices, priorities, and reforms, few attempts have been made to build a body of research to measure the effectiveness of youth defense practices. Further, there have been limited attempts to use data to describe the provisions of youth defense, let alone to research the effectiveness of youth defense delivery systems and their impact on case processes and outcomes.

We conducted a multi-method study, interviewing youth legal counsel and analyzing data archives.

In response, NORC is collaborating with the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) and The Gault Center to build knowledge about youth legal defense systems, practices, and associated outcomes through a multi-method study that includes analysis of the National Juvenile Court Data Archive, hosted by NCJJ, and interviews with youth legal counsel, guided by the National Juvenile Defense Standards.

Objectives of the study include:

1. Collaborating with NCJJ to identify jurisdictions that submit data to the National Juvenile Court Data Archive on the assignment of youth legal counsel for inclusion in the study
2. Conducting semi-structured interviews with legal counsel to understand how youth are assigned to legal counsel and youth defense practices, as defined by the National Juvenile Defense Standards
3. Analyzing the National Juvenile Court Data Archive data to understand the proportion of youth receiving legal representation and how case processes and outcomes for youth vary by the type of legal counsel provided to youth
4. Disseminating findings from the study, including practitioner-friendly briefs, a peer-reviewed journal article, presentations, and a final technical report