Youth Court: A Path to Civic Engagement

To build an informed and effective citizenry, prepared to deal with the crises of everyday life, more schools, local and state governments, and communities are searching for ways to provide civic engagement programming for youth. President George W. Bush (2002) has issued a call to all American citizens to provide two years or 4,000 hours of service over a lifetime to "create a nation of active and engaged citizens." Youth courts, also known as teen courts or peer courts, play a critical role in supporting the call. The program, operating in 78 jurisdictions nationwide in 1994, has risen to approximately 900 sites in 46 states and the District of Columbia in 2003. This 1000% increase in nine years warrants a closer look at a once-small and obscure crime prevention program.