Its mission is to provide national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond appropriately to juvenile delinquency and juvenile victimization. They further explained that guidance needs to be somewhat general given the variation that can occur among projects as grantees tailor them to meet local needs and circumstances. In Some Programs, All Grantees Report the Number of Juveniles They Directly Serve

We identified eight programs in which grantees directly serve juveniles and in which all grantees report the number of juveniles served to either OJJDP or an outside evaluator. First and foremost, many of OJJDP’s programs are not intended to serve juveniles directly. Our in-depth review of these 10 evaluations shows that although several are well-designed and use, or plan to use, sophisticated data analysis methods, others raise concerns as to whether the evaluations will produce definitive results. Many of the training and technical assistance providers are required to report information on their projects’ activities and accomplishments semiannually using OJP’s Categorical Assistance Progress Report form, as do all OJJDP grantees.OJP provides standard guidance on information to be reported, such as information on the status of each of the grantees’ project goals and quantitative results of their projects. II for a description of OJJDP’s product dissemination process). Appendix VIII: Twenty-Four Other Evaluations Funded by OJJDP

This appendix contains summaries of the 24 evaluations the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has funded since 1995 (excluding the 11 impact evaluations it has funded of its own programs discussed in app. The five project sites are implementing different projects and have not yet completed their evaluation designs. Youth Gang Programs and Strategies.
What GAO Found

Although national rates of violent juvenile crime and youth victimization have declined during the past five years, critical problems affecting juveniles, such as drug dependency, the spread of gangs, and child abuse and neglect, persist. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has funded various demonstration, replication, research and evaluation, and training and technical assistance programs to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and juvenile victimization. GAO's review of 16 of OJJDP's major programs found that, although virtually all grantees must report on their progress twice a year, the information they reported varied. Grantees receive standard, general guidance for reporting on their projects and providing OJJDP information to monitor grantee's projects and accomplishments. According to OJJDP officials, such guidance needs to be general because of differences among individual projects and local needs and circumstances. GAO identified eight programs in which all grantees reported the number of juveniles they directly served. OJJDP does not require grantees in all its programs to report directly on the number of juveniles served directly because many of its programs are not intended to serve juveniles directly. GAO's in-depth review of OJJDP's 10 impact evaluations undertaken since 1995 raises concerns about whether the evaluations will produce definitive results. In some of these evaluations, variations in how the programs are implemented across sites make it difficult to interpret evaluation results.