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3 Cap. U. L. Rev. 1 (1974)
Community Courts: Decentralizing Juvenile Jurisprudence

handle is hein.journals/capulr3 and id is 7 raw text is: COMMUNITY COURTS: DECENTRALIZING JUVENILE JURISPRUDENCE WILLIAM P. STATSKY* INTRODUCTION In 1971 the Forum was established as part of the Neighborhood Youth Diversion Program in the Bronx, New York as a community court for juveniles in trouble with the law. Staffed by residents of the Bronx community who volunteer their time' to serve as Forum Judges on a part time basis, the Forum attempts to resolve conflicts between a youngster and an adult-complainant through the tech- niques of mediation. Hearings are normally conducted in the eve- ning or in the late afternoon. The jurisdiction of the Forum is en- tirely voluntary. Forum Judges cannot sentence anyone. They work on cases referred to the Neighborhood Youth Diversion Pro- gram from the Department of Probation and the Family Court. Forum Judges make recommendations to the participants at the Hearing, and to the referring agencies through the vehicle of the larger Program of which the Forum is an integral component. At some point, the Forum hopes to develop the capacity of receiving cases directly from these agencies. Juvenile delinquency is a problem of major dimensions in the target area of the Bronx chosen for piloting the strategies of the Neighborhood Youth Diversion Program and the Forum. All of the worst characteristics of the urban ghetto are manifested there: dete- rioration, poverty, violence and family disarray.2 The challenge of the Forum is to develop a dispute settlement mechanism that could gain credibility as a community vehicle responsive to the needs of young adults in conflict with their parents, their peers, other adults and the law. * Professor of Law, Antioch School of Law; former Forum Director, Neighborhood Youth Diversion Program, Bronx, N.Y., B.A. 1964, Boston College, J.D. 1967, Boston College School of Law, L.L.M. 1970, New York University School of Law. 1. Forum Judges receive a $10.00 stipend to cover transportation, baby-sitting and miscellaneous expenses. 2. See J. MARTIN, J. FITZPATRICK & R. GOULD, THE ANALYSIS OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR: A STRUCTURAl° APPROACH (1970); NEW YORK CITY YOUTH BOARD, MANDATE FOR CHANGE: 1947- 1967; Sheridan, Juveniles Who Commit Non.Criminal Acts: Why Treat in a Correctional System?, 31 FED. PROB. 29 (1967).

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