Juvenile Justice Studies

Solution to arrests for common youth misbehavior: Juvenile civil citations

Florida leads the nation in the solution to effectively address common youth misbehavior – it’s called a “juvenile civil citation”, which is an alternative to arrest.  Some states refer to this approach as a pre -arrest diversion.

The Caruthers Institute (CI) conducts the nation’s most important annual study on the issue, authored by founder Dewey Caruthers who is one of Florida’s top experts on the topic.  He has worked with numerous counties to build and grow juvenile civil citation programs.

To date in Florida, Stepping Up has conducted four statewide studies, 268 county reports and a report to inform legislative decision-making.