Full system adoption of trauma-informed juvenile justice policies and practices is a suggested strategy to decrease traumatic stress and increase well-being for youth involved in juvenile justice systems (OJJDP-Marsh 2015). Available evidence suggests that such an approach increases staff capacity in juvenile residential facilities and family and community engagement in offenders’ support and is more likely to provide individualized services to offenders than the traditional justice system (Ford JD, Blaustein ME. Systemic self-regulation: A framework for trauma-informed services in residential juvenile justice programs. Journal of Family Violence. 2013;28(7):665–677.
Link to original source (journal subscription may be required for access)Ford 2013, Randall 2013). A Pennsylvania-based evaluation of Sanctuary model, one model that supports trauma-informed organizational culture change, suggests such a model may also reduce problem behaviors and improve feelings of safety among adolescents in a girl’s juvenile justice residential facility (Elwyn LJ, Esaki N, Smith CA. Safety at a girls' secure juvenile justice facility. Therapeutic Communities: The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities. 2015;36(4):209–218.
Link to original source (journal subscription may be required for access)Elwyn 2015).

Specific trauma-focused psychosocial interventions for youth such as Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET); Trauma and Grief Components Therapy for Adolescents (TGCTA); Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT); and Trauma-Adapted Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (TA-MTFC) have been shown to decrease post-traumatic stress and related symptoms, depression, and delinquent behaviors in youth involved in juvenile justice systems (Ford 2016). However, additional evidence is needed to confirm effects of full system adoption of trauma-informed juvenile justice policies and practices.