Identifying chronic juvenile offenders

Abstract

With the recent rise in juvenile offending, particularly violent crime, legislative and public attention has focused sharply on juvenile corrections. In the past few years, juvenile justice has witnessed stronger legislative dictates requiring public agencies to consider the public safety implications of their policy decisions, an increasing emphasis on outcomes-based evaluation, and a renewed interest in matching services to juvenile's needs. Consequently risk classification, and specifically the identification of chronic juvenile offenders, have assumed a much higher policy profile. Here we review the historical development of risk classification in the context of a rational decision-making model. We discuss the major risk factors identified in the literature and describe in detail a study to identify and respond to chronic juvenile offenders in Orange County, California. Recognizing the advantages of the researcher/practitioner team approach adopted there, we attempt to replicate both the process and the results in Philadelphia. Using a unique juvenile justice database we test but reject the Orange County model; instead we develop a classification model of chronic offending that better fits this juvenile population. Using the Philadelphia model, we demonstrate the policy potential of risk classification by examining the impact of program type and of neighborhood on chronic offending.