A Vision for the American Juvenile Justice System: The Positive Youth Development Perspective

Traditionally, the juvenile justice system has operated without a useful-and often a counterfactual-developmental perspective. Through its design and implementation, the system reflects the view that the youth in its custody are deficient in positive behavioral skills and have inevitably problematic development, and that these deficiencies are unlikely to be corrected during adolescence or even afterward. However, according to Lerner and his colleagues, this deficit perspective is based on an erroneous understanding of biological development, ignorance of extant data about adolescence, and a misunderstanding about the nature and strengths of youth development. Their chapter describes the nature and problems of the contemporary juvenile justice system that arise as a consequence and provides an alternative lens for viewing youth development-the positive youth development (PYD) perspective. In their view, the PYD perspective capitalizes appropriately on contemporary theory and research on adolescent development and, as such, has profound implications for the transformation of juvenile justice policy and programs.