Underage Drinking: Intervention Principles and Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections

Underage drinking is an issue that doesn’t get much in attention in most communities…until there is a tragedy. And even in the face of an underage drinking tragedy, most communities find it difficult to develop a comprehensive strategy that will continue to be implemented effectively once the initial fervor has passed.
For the most part, efforts to address underage drinking have been centered on reducing youth access to alcohol (i.e. “sting” operations at convenience stores). While these programs have been successful, they have not addressed the other side of the issue – the underage drinkers themselves. Typically the responsibility for implementing effective youth-centered underage drinking responses falls to the probation and diversion programs in a community. The American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) and Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) recently released “Underage Drinking: Intervention Principles and Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections,” in order to provide the field with a comprehensive guide to addressing the underage drinker.
The Underage Drinking: Intervention Principles and Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections focuses on implementing appropriate screening and assessment tools and evidence-based practices. The Guidelines are incredibly practical and user-friendly providing case studies with sample case plans that are easy to follow and understand. Complex concepts like Stages of Change are distilled to their functional application and come across as common-sense solutions.

Addressing underage drinking should be a community-wide effort, and while the Underage Drinking: Intervention Principles and Practices Guidelines for Community Corrections is primarily for probation and diversion, the topics it touches on, from levels of care to engaging families, make it a must-have tool for everyone working in the juvenile court system. 

The post above is reprinted with permission from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

Jessica Pearce is the Projects Coordinator in the Juvenile and Family Law Department, Alcohol and Other Drugs Division of NCJFCJ. Ms. Pearce has extensive experience coordinating and managing training and technical assistance projects such as NCJFCJ's National Conference on Juvenile Justice, NCJFCJ's Annual Conference, the Juvenile Drug Court Planning Initiative, and the Judicial Curriculum for Juvenile DWI. Ms. Pearce led the curriculum development team for NCJFCJ’s “Moving Your Juvenile Drug Court from Where it is…To Where You Want it to Be!” training series. Ms. Pearce has presented on adolescent and AOD-related topics for Children and Family Futures, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Reclaiming Futures Project. Her writing has appeared in Children and Youth Services Review, NCJFCJ’s Today Magazine, NCJFCJ’s Child Support Enforcement Benchcards, The Court Appoint Special Advocates’ Judge’s Page; and the Century Council’s Hardcore Drunk Driving Guide for Judges.
*Photo at top by Flickr user seannaber