Juvenile Justice Interventions Research Articles

Head Injury and Antisocial Personality Features in a Sample of Juvenile Detainees

Previous research has reported high prevalence rates of head injury amongst juvenile justice involved youth and relations between head injury and different forms of offending. However, little is currently known about the extent to which head injury is associated with antisocial personality features – characteristics that are strongly correlated with adult antisocial personality disorder symptomatology. The current study aimed to address this void in the existing body of research by analyzing a longitudinal sample of juvenile detainees ( N = 881) to examine the relationship between head injury during childhood or early adolescence and a wide range of antisocial personality features in late adolescence. Results from a series of logistic regression models reveal that head injury is associated with impulsivity and aggression more than other features of antisocial personality. The implications of these results for juvenile justice intervention programming and avenues for future research are discussed.

Juvenile Diversion and the Family: How Youth and Parents Experience Diversion Programming

Despite extensive research into juvenile justice interventions, there is a limited focus on family engagement, including parent–child experiences in these various programs. Even less research explores how families, specifically youth and parents, are affected by diversion from the traditional juvenile justice system. The current study fills this gap by drawing from in-depth interviews with 19 parents and 19 youths participating in a juvenile pretrial diversion program in Southern California. This research highlights how a diversion program can influence how families understand the justice system and law-related behaviors. The themes discussed include how diversion programs shape parent–child bonds, how parents navigate negative indictments of youth and themselves for participating in diversion, and the influence of external challenges and social forces shaping youth and parent experiences. Findings support the theoretical contributions from social bond and labeling theory. Implications and future research will also be discussed.

Who Will Become Productive Adults? Longitudinal Patterns of Gainful Activities Among Serious Adolescent Offenders

The juvenile justice system is charged with the welfare of the children it serves, yet less is known about the prosocial behaviors of adolescent youthful offenders. This study identifies patterns of prosocial behavior for 7 years among serious adolescent offenders, the correlates of each pattern, and associated patterns of secure placement. Using 7 years of monthly data from the Pathways to Desistance Study ( N = 1,354), we used group-based trajectory models to identify longitudinal patterns of positive youth behaviors related to school and work among serious adolescent offenders and a joint trajectory model to assess the relationship between trajectories of institutional placement and positive youth behaviors. Four groups were identified that demonstrated a high, low, medium, and dips-then-rises likelihood of gainful activities throughout the study period. Gainful activities were negatively associated with risk for delinquency across multiple domains. Juvenile justice interventions should consider prosocial promise in addition to risk for delinquency.

The case for rigorous comparative research and population impacts in a new era of evidence‐based interventions for juvenile offenders

AbstractA key take away from Elliott et al.’s critical review is the need for a program of more rigorous comparative research to assess the two main evidence‐based models for guiding juvenile justice interventions. Additionally, a sound measure of this research should be whether or not the different models are able to achieve (and sustain) population impacts. Both of these are important issues facing the evidence‐based movement in juvenile justice today, and the purpose of this essay is to make the case for greater attention to each one. The decision‐tree method and computer simulation modeling represent two rigorous approaches, and their use could benefit immensely understanding of the comparative effectiveness of the different models. It will also be important to consider other existing models as part of a program of comparative research. The risk‐need‐responsivity model and Communities That Care are two examples. A key criticism of evidence‐based interventions, whether they are brand‐name programs or generic practices, is the limited research demonstrating their ability to achieve population impacts. Some of the views undergirding this criticism are warranted. At the same time, advancements in the science of implementation over the last two decades bolster support for scaling up evidence‐based interventions and attaining impacts at the population level. Efforts underway in several states provide additional support for the ability to scale‐up evidence‐based juvenile justice interventions and achieve population impacts. Expanding the scope and accelerating the pace of this work begins by building on the progress so far as well as a renewed political will.

Improving responses to juvenile burglary offenders

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to make evidence-based recommendations for improving the responses of criminal justice agencies to juvenile burglary offenders. Design/methodology/approach The paper first analyzes what is known about factors relevant to young offenders’ initiation into burglary and subsequent persistence in that offense. It then evaluates research regarding juvenile justice interventions that can mitigate those factors in order to prevent youth from becoming involved in burglary or to encourage desistance in juvenile burglars. Findings Effective early intervention with juvenile burglars is vital, as burglars often begin committing this crime in their early teens and quickly develop expertise in the offense. Evidence supports the importance of positive mentoring, substance abuse programs, some forms of restorative justice and multi-modal interventions with education and employment components, while waiving these youth to adult court appears to offer little benefit over less punitive approaches. Originality/value This work delivers an original contribution by providing an analysis of existing burglary and juvenile justice research that may be useful to policymakers, law enforcement and other justice practitioners.

Innovations in Modeling Social Good: A Demonstration With Juvenile Justice Intervention

Objectives: Using agent-based modeling (ABM) within a complexity theory framework provides an alternative and promising method for significantly advancing the study of social good. Complexity theory is a systems approach based on the idea that aggregate patterns arise from the interactions of agents and their environments. Such systems operate according to a set of simple rules, and patterns emerge from these simple interactions that sometimes cannot be predicted by examining those interactions alone. ABM is a computational approach that simulates the interactions of autonomous agents with each other and their environments (social and/or physical). Methods: We adapted the Rebellion model from the NetLogo software library to demonstrate the potential of this approach to measure social good. Specifically, we examine the impact of variables related to juvenile justice involvement on the converse of social good, social exclusion, which in this model was conceptualized as the lack of educational attainment among youth at risk of juvenile justice involvement. After designing our ABM, we ran a total of 2400 simulations where we systematically varied key variables, including arrest risk and maximum sentence. Results: We report the descriptive statistics from our simulations for key output variables in the ABM, including percent socially excluded and average accumulated jail time, and demonstrate the usefulness of this method by identifying nonlinear, bivariate associations across the simulations. Conclusion: Our model demonstrates the usefulness of an innovative methodological approach, complexity theory, coupled with an innovative technology, ABM, in developing policies and programs that will maximize social good.

Sent Home Versus Being Arrested: The Relative Influence of School and Police Intervention on Drug Use

Prior research has demonstrated that school disciplinary practices lead to juvenile justice intervention or the “school-to-prison pipeline” and that juvenile justice intervention leads to adversities, including drug-using behavior, in adolescence and adult life. Yet, it is not clear which form of official intervention, school suspension, and expulsion or police arrest, is more predictive of drug use among young people. Using data from the Rochester Youth Developmental Study, we examined both the immediate, concurrent influence of school and police intervention on drug use during adolescence and the long-term, cumulative impact of school and police intervention during adolescence on subsequent drug use in young established adulthood. The results indicate that school exclusionary practices appeared to be more predictive of drug use than police arrest during both adolescence and young adulthood. Additionally, such negative effects mainly exhibited among minority subjects, and the effects by gender appeared contingent on developmental stages.

Unscripted Responsible Research and Innovation: Adaptive space creation by an emerging RRI practice concerning juvenile justice interventions

Emerging RRI practices have goals with respect to learning, governance and achieving RRI outcomes (action). However, few practices actually achieve the action phase as actors lack room to manoeuvre, and lack guidance on how to move forward because of the inherent unscriptedness of the emerging RRI practice. In this explorative research an emerging RRI practice is studied to identify factors and barriers to the creation of adaptive space, in which actors can be responsive to the other and adapt, and a narrative can be created in the act of doing. This paper describes how formal and informal ways of organizing emerging RRI practices contribute to adaptive space, and how the metaphorical heuristic of improvisational theatre provides clear action principles to actors involved in emerging RRI practices in action. The RRI practice studied here lies in the domain of juvenile justice, where barriers that restrict room to manoeuvre are abundant. Five factors – ‘informality over formality’, ‘shared action space’, ‘be flexible’, ‘keep the action moving’ and ‘put the relationship central’ – were identified to facilitate reflexivity and adaptation in this space.

Measuring the Impact of Juvenile Justice Interventions: What Works, What Helps and What Matters?

This article considers the findings of three different research studies on one juvenile justice intervention. In 2015, Juvenile Justice New South Wales received three different research findings on the same programme, the Intensive Supervision Program (ISP). The Bureau of Crime Statistics Research (BOCSAR) provided a report on the reoffending rates of those young people who underwent the programme. A team of researchers from Western Sydney University produced a report in two parts: first, a qualitative study that told the story of the young people’s path towards desistance, and second, a related economic analysis plotting the possible economic benefits to society of this programme producing desistance in participants. It is a rare situation to have three such different research reports on the same programme so this article will consider the wider implications of this and how to best judge whether a criminal justice intervention is successful and worth pursuing.

Juvenile delinquency, welfare, justice and therapeutic interventions: a global perspective.

This review considers juvenile delinquency and justice from an international perspective. Youth crime is a growing concern. Many young offenders are also victims with complex needs, leading to a public health approach that requires a balance of welfare and justice models. However, around the world there are variable and inadequate legal frameworks and a lack of a specialist workforce. The UK and other high-income countries worldwide have established forensic child and adolescent psychiatry, a multifaceted discipline incorporating legal, psychiatric and developmental fields. Its adoption of an evidence-based therapeutic intervention philosophy has been associated with greater reductions in recidivism compared with punitive approaches prevalent in some countries worldwide, and it is therefore a superior approach to dealing with the problem of juvenile delinquency.

Mental health problems in male young offenders in custodial versus community based-programs: implications for juvenile justice interventions.

BackgroundYoung offenders are known to be a population with high prevalence of mental health disorders. In most cases, these disorders are neither identified nor treated properly, with the majority of them being chronic and difficult to treat. In many countries, the prevalence rates of psychopathology in male young offenders are still unknown and no psychotherapeutic interventions are delivered. Therefore, the main goal of the present study was to assess mental health problems in Portuguese male young offenders placed in either custodial or community-based programs and discuss treatment implications within the juvenile justice interventions.MethodsParticipants in this study included 217 male young offenders aged between 14 and 20 years old that were randomly selected using a random number table. From the total sample, 122 (56.3 %) participants were placed in juvenile detention facilities, and 95 (43.7 %) were receiving community-based programs. Participants were interviewed with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents, a structured interview that assesses DSM-IV Axis I Mental Disorders. Participants aged 18 years or older were also assessed with the antisocial personality disorder section from the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders.ResultsResults showed a high prevalence of mental health disorders, with a global prevalence of 91.2 % in the total sample. In both groups, global prevalence rates were equally high (93.4 % in youth in custodial versus 88.4 % in youth in community-based programs). Substance-related disorders were more prevalent in youth placed in juvenile facilities, whereas anxiety and mood disorders were more often found in the community-based group. Moreover, oppositional defiant disorder was more prevalent in youth from the community, whereas antisocial personality disorder and conduct disorder were less prevalent than expected in this same group. A high comorbidity rate was also found, with the majority of participants from both groups’ fulfilling criteria for two or more disorders. Additionally, participants with conduct disorder were over four times more likely to fulfill criteria for substance abuse.ConclusionsOur findings inform about specific needs concerning mental health intervention that should be taken into account when deciding and planning rehabilitation programs for male young offenders, either from custodial or community-based programs.

REMOVED: Risk-taking and self-regulation: A systematic review of the analysis of delinquency outcomes in the juvenile justice intervention literature 1996–2009

This article has been removed: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our‐business/policies/article‐withdrawal)This meeting abstract has been removed by the Publisher. Due to an administrative error, abstracts that were not presented at the ISDN 2014 meeting were inadvertently published in the meeting's abstract supplement. The Publisher apologizes to the authors and readers for this error.

Perceptions and Outcomes following Teen Court Involvement

The study discussed in this article aimed to explore geographic variation in teen court program completion and recidivism and examine the value of teen courts from the point of view of respondents and their families. Mixed methods, including survival analysis and constant comparison analysis of qualitative interview findings, were used to address the study aims in a sample drawn from three jurisdictions. RESULTS indicate that successful teen court participation was associated with low rates of recidivism, particularly when compared with youths who took part in teen court hearings but failed to comply with court requirements. Interview data identified themes reflecting fairness, consequences, and accountability. FINDINGS suggest that teen courts play a valuable role in the spectrum of juvenile justice interventions. Language: en

Addressing Trauma and Psychosocial Development in Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth: A Synthesis of the Developmental Neuroscience, Juvenile Justice and Trauma Literature

Youth incarcerated in the juvenile justice system are disproportionately exposed to traumas both in and outside of custody that are associated with poor social, behavioral, and developmental outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to describe one pathway through which trauma can impact a myriad of outcomes, including delinquency, violence, substance use, and other behaviors that are self-regulatory in nature. Relevant research from the developmental neuroscience, juvenile justice, and trauma literatures are drawn upon and synthesized to describe this pathway. Using a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the role that brain development and neural activity play in the relationship between trauma and associated behavioral outcomes could serve to inform juvenile justice policy decisions and intervention practice. Such application could increase the effectiveness with which juvenile justice systems work with one of the most vulnerable and traumatized populations of youth in today’s society: those incarcerated in our juvenile justice system.

Delinquency Referrals; Predictive and Protective Factors for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Offenders; and Juvenile Justice Interventions

Delinquency Referrals; Predictive and Protective Factors for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Offenders; and Juvenile Justice Interventions

Juvenile Justice Interventions: System Escalation and Effective Alternatives to Residential Placement

The overarching goals of the evaluation are to assess the use of community-based interventions as an alternative to residential commitments for delinquent youth, and determine why some youth escalate from community-sanctions to residential placement. Using logistic regression and propensity score matching techniques, the study examined pathways through the continuum of care, and the relative effectiveness of probation and residential dispositions. All youth disposed to either juvenile probation (n = 2,823) or residential facilities (n = 269) in Connecticut between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2007 were included in the study. The results demonstrate that delaying delinquency and increasing family protective factors help prevent youth escalation through the system. Further, an assessment of comparable probation and residential placements revealed that probationers had significantly lower recidivism than those placed in commitment programs. These findings suggest that community-based supervision is an effective alternative to more restrictive and costly residential services for some juvenile delinquents; and highlight important considerations for reducing system escalation.

Risk-Taking and Self-Regulation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the juvenile justice intervention literature for the statistical consideration given the impact that age, as a marker of neuropsychosocial development, may have on delinquency outcomes. A systematic review of 117 studies published between 1996 and 2009 was conducted to assess the methods by which curvilinear and moderating effects of age were included in the analysis of delinquency outcomes. Ninety-one percent of studies may have underestimated intervention effects through the misspecification of the effect of age on delinquency outcomes. Of the 10 studies that did test for curvilinear and interaction effects, 80% had findings consistent with neuropsychosocial theories of age on delinquency. To account for age effects on delinquency, the regular use of multiple age groups in analysis may increase both the precision with which intervention effects are measured and the identification of specific age groups with whom individual interventions are most effective.

Is program structure related to stigma and community acceptance of justice-involved adolescents?

Abstract Objective The aim of the study is to examine the impact of diversion program characteristics on social stigma of delinquent adolescents in Jordan. Method A street survey of adults was conducted in Amman, Jordan. Respondents were randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes involving a delinquent adolescent who participated successfully in one of four types of juvenile justice interventions: detention center placement; diversion with counseling; diversion with counseling plus victim apology and restitution; and diversion with counseling plus family-based apology and restitution. Respondents reported their willingness to accept the adolescent as a member of their child's school, as a friend of their child, as a spouse for their child, and as a future employee. Seventy seven percent of adults approached participated (N = 137). Results Respondents reported greater willingness to accept the adolescent when he participated in any of the three diversion programs compared to the detention center condition (β = .80, p Conclusion Intervention characteristics can influence public stigma in the Middle East. For justice involved youths, interventions that increase perceptions that youth have learned their lesson is a crucial ingredient to stigma reduction efforts. Social work interventions with delinquent adolescents and their families need to incorporate stigma management strategies that convey lesson-learning as a key intervention outcome.

A Systematic Review of the Juvenile Justice Intervention Literature

A pool of 141 juvenile justice intervention studies conducted in the United States, utilizing a control group, reporting quantitative outcomes and spanning the years 1996 to 2009 were identified via electronic searches. Study inclusion into the summary of best practices was based on the demonstrated equivalence of study groups (treatment and control) at the start of the study, the equivalence of the study groups at posttest, and the degree to which fidelity to treatment procedures was demonstrated. Of the 141 studies, 120 failed quality review, mostly due to fidelity issues. Of the 21 articles that passed, 76% used a therapeutic approach (vs. behavioral control) to behavioral change, with the treatment group outperforming the control group in 88% of the therapeutic intervention studies.

Computer-Tailored Intervention for Juvenile Offenders

Studies assessing the efficacy of juvenile justice interventions show small effects on recidivism and other outcomes. This article describes the development of a prototype of a multimedia computer-tailored intervention (Rise Above Your Situation) that relies on an evidence-based model of behavior change, the transtheoretical model, and expert system technology to deliver assessments, feedback, printed reports, and counselor reports with intervention ideas. In a feasibility test involving 60 system-involved youths and their counselors, evaluations of the program were favorable: 91.7% of youths agreed that the program could help them make positive changes, and 86.7% agreed that the program could give their counselor helpful information about them.