Teen Court: A National Movement
Profile: Salt Lake City's Peer Court
A Student Court in a Community Setting
Salt Lake City's peer court has many interesting components. It is a student court, in
that it accepts referrals only from school personnel (counselors, administrators, social
workers, and police serving as school resource officers), but serves a community of
several elementary and secondary schools. Most offenses involve tobacco usage or truancy,
but there are also school-based thefts, vandalism, and trespassing. Cases involving
fighting are referred to mediation, in which adult/student teams serve as mediators*.
Sentencing options include a variety of school-based and community-based community
service placements, tutoring, Life Enhancement Alternatives Program (educational classes),
essays, research papers, and letters of apology. In 1997–98, the court heard 170
cases. This was a significant increase over the 40 plus cases heard in each of the four
prior years of the court's existence. More than 80 percent of the offenders whose cases
were heard completed their sentences successfully.
Mentoring is an important part of the Salt Lake Peer Court process. At the conclusion
of each dispositional hearing, one of the peer-court panel members elects to be the mentor
for each offender. The student mentor has weekly meetings with the offender until the
sentence is completed. An adult adviser is also assigned to each offender and contacts
him/her or the parent weekly**. The student mentor and adult adviser are present at the
"reappearance hearing" at which the offender is awarded a "certificate of
completion."
Salt Lake City Peer Court receives significant funding from a Safe and Drug-Free
Schools grant (from the U.S. Department of Education), a grant from the Utah Commission on
Juvenile Justice, a private foundation, and the mayor's office. The school district
liaisons to the court are paid for by the participating high schools and the court has
received in-kind support from the Utah LRE program.
* Peer mediation programs and student court programs complement each other's
functioning. Person-to-person disputes may be handled more appropriately by peer mediation
while status offenses and offenses in which the school or a non-specific victim exists may
be more appropriately handled by a student court.
** Adult advisers (volunteers from area colleges and the community at large) attend the
same two-day training as the student volunteers plus an additional four hours of training.
They attend two of every three weekly court sessions and act as advisers to three to four
offenders at a time.
>>What are teen courts?
>>The Growth of Teen Courts
>>The Major Models
>>Steps for Implementing a Teen Court
>>Teen Courts and Law-Related Education
>>Delinquency Prevention; The Educational Role
>>Training
>>Profile: Salt Lake City's Peer Court
>>Student Courts
>>How Do Lawyers, Judges, and the Bar Support Teen
Courts?
>>Profile: A Lawyer's Inside View of Teen Court
>>Profile: The Wyoming Bar and Teen Court
>>Evaluation
>>Funding
>>Conclusion and References
>>Resources and Additional Information
Teachers/Students Home | Technical
Assistance Bulletin No. 17 Main Page