Recidivism In Young Offenders Research Articles

The predictive and incremental validity of ADHD beyond the VRAG-R in a high-risk sample of young offenders

The VRAG-R is a well-established actuarial risk-assessment instrument, which was originally developed for assessing violent recidivism risk in adult male offenders. Whether or not the VRAG-R can also predict violent recidivism in young offenders is unclear so far. In the emergence of juvenile offending, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) seems to be of major importance suggesting that it could be relevant for risk assessment as well. Thus, we examined the predictive accuracy of the VRAG-R in a high-risk sample of N = 106 (M = 18.3 years, SD = 1.8) young offenders and assessed the incremental predictive validity of ADHD symptomatology beyond the VRAG-R. Within a mean follow-up time of M = 13 years (SD = 1.2), n = 65 (62.5%) young offenders recidivated with a violent offense. We found large effect sizes for the prediction of violent and general recidivism and re-incarcerations using the VRAG-R sum scores. Current ADHD symptomatology added incremental predictive validity beyond the VRAG-R sum scores concerning the prediction of general recidivism but not of violent recidivism. The results supported the use of the VRAG-R for predicting violent recidivism in young offenders. Because ADHD symptomatology improves the predictive performance of the VRAG-R regarding general recidivism, we argue that addressing ADHD symptoms more intensively in the juvenile justice system is of particular importance concerning a successful long-term risk management in adolescents and young adults.

Exposure to Family Violence and Risk Factors for Recidivism in Juvenile Offenders

ABSTRACT A better understanding of the relationship between exposure to family violence and criminal recidivism is essential in order to develop interventions which target the specific needs of juvenile offenders. Using the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), we explored the differences in historical, social/contextual, and individual risk and protective factors for delinquency among youth males exposed (n = 253) and not exposed to family violence (n = 497) in Spain. Chi-square test shows that most of the risk factors assessed were present in the group exposed to family violence, especially a history of child maltreatment. Logistic regression analysis show that peer delinquency was a common predictor of recidivism in youth both exposed and not exposed to family violence. Early initiation of violence predicted recidivism in young offenders without exposure to family violence, while the absence of strong social support predicted recidivism in young offenders with this exposure. Professionals in juvenile justice services need to work on peer relationships, but also to keep in mind and to address the specific needs of young offenders both with and without exposure to family violence if the aim is to avoid recidivism.

Predicting risk of recidivism in Spanish young offenders: Comparative analysis of the SAVRY and YLS/CMI.

This study offers a comparative analysis of evidence for the predictive validity of SAVRY and YLS/CMI scores in predicting risk of recidivism in a group of young people who received a Juvenile Justice order. The sample was made up of 594 youths aged between 14 and 18 (M=15.63, SD=1.08) at the time they committed an offense. Both instruments showed high accuracy in predicting recidivism, with the greatest accuracy observed in the SAVRY and YLS/CMI total scores, as well as in the Individual domain of the SAVRY. Comparative analysis of the AUCs of both instruments indicated no statistically significant differences between total scores from the two instruments. Results showed statistically significant differences in comparisons of means and AUCs between the groups of young reoffenders and non-reoffenders in all cases. Our results did not support the hypothesis that dynamic risk factors are a better predictors of recidivism in young offenders. This study offers empirical evidence of the predictive capacity and differential functioning of the SAVRY and YLS/CMI instruments in the Spanish context.

Assessing the Interactions between Strengths and Risk Factors of Recidivism through the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY).

Instruments that assess recidivism risk in young people are used widely in the sphere of juvenile justice worldwide. Traditionally, research has focused on the study of risk factors presented by young offenders, and how these relate to criminal recidivism. In present-day research, protective factors have also come into their own, having proven to encourage non-recidivism in young offenders. This paper presents a study carried out with 594 young offenders. The instrument used for assessing risk of recidivism in young offenders was the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY). In the results found here, one can observe how the young offenders who did not reoffend presented a greater level of protective factors than the repeating offenders. The youths with a prior arrest record scored higher in the risk domains than the reoffenders without a prior arrest record. The case of young repeat offenders who already had an arrest record represents a high-risk profile, or a profile of a criminal career. Crimes committed by young people can be isolated incidents in their life. In most youths, criminal behavior does not persist beyond legal age. Protective factors prove to be important in juvenile justice when planning an individualized intervention for the young offender.

Applying Positive Psychology to Illuminate the Needs of Adolescent Males Transitioning Out of Juvenile Detention.

Reducing the recidivism of young offenders is a critical research issue, not only to enhance the future outcomes for the young person but also to reduce the future risk to the community. Navigating the immediate transition from detention back into the community is positioned as a critical milestone. This small qualitative study describes how young offenders participating in a formal mentoring program in Australia experienced the transition from detention to the community and the intrinsic drivers of their behaviour throughout this transition. Perspectives of their mentors and caseworker were also solicited. Importantly, their stories were interpreted through the lens of positive psychology and self-determination theory to discuss the relevance of one's pursuit of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Increasing our understanding of these intrinsic motivators will assist young offenders to pursue a better life away from crime and benefit both themselves and the wider community.

Predicción del riesgo de reincidencia en una muestra de menores infractores españoles. Evidencias de validez del SAVRY

El uso de instrumentos de predicción del riesgo de reincidencia en menores infractores está cada vez más extendido entre profesionales e investigadores, a tal grado que ha provocado el aumento del número de instrumentos desarrollados específicamente para menores infractores. Entre los instrumen- tos de predicción del riesgo de reincidencia creados para jóvenes destaca el Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY. Borum, Bartel, & Forth, 2002, 2006). En este trabajo se presenta una aproximación a la capacidad predictiva del instrumento SAVRY en su aplicación a menores infractores españoles. La muestra está formada por un total de 594 menores con causa judicial en el Juzgado de Menores de Almería (España), de edades comprendidas entre 14 y 18 años, por lo menos al momento de la comisión de la conducta antisocial penada. El 85.4% de los menores era de sexo masculino y 79% de nacionalidad española. Los resultados muestran que el instrumento SAVRY presenta una adecuada capacidad predictiva.

The Predictive Validity of Savry Ratings for Assessing Youth Offenders in Singapore: A Comparison With YLS/CMI Ratings.

Empirical support for the usage of the SAVRY has been reported in studies conducted in many Western contexts, but not in a Singaporean context. This study compared the predictive validity of the SAVRY ratings for violent and general recidivism against the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) ratings within the Singaporean context. Using a sample of 165 male young offenders (Mfollow-up = 4.54 years), results showed that the SAVRY Total Score and Summary Risk Rating, as well as YLS/CMI Total Score and Overall Risk Rating, predicted violent and general recidivism. SAVRY Protective Total Score was only significantly predictive of desistance from general recidivism, and did not show incremental predictive validity for violent and general recidivism over the SAVRY Total Score. Overall, the results suggest that the SAVRY is suited (to varying degrees) for assessing the risk of violent and general recidivism in young offenders within the Singaporean context, but might not be better than the YLS/CMI.

Recidivism in Young Offenders

Recently, with some variations, American society has witnessed an increase in criminality, as people seem to lose their self-control more easily and to have less respect for human life. Jails and prisons house more offenders of all ages. The reasons for their incarceration are many but include the uncontrolled use of drugs and firearms, both of which may lead to violent acting out. Most of these offenders are eventually discharged from incarceration and returned to society, where they often engage in recidivistic criminal activity. As I have written in previous editorials on this topic, recidivism rates vary, depending on the type of offense, but are generally relatively high. The public, as well as those in the legal field, is, therefore, concerned not only with the past behaviors of these offenders but also with their possibility of recidivism. Some of these offenders are young. People wonder why they show such disregard for human property and human life at such a young age, and the reasons are many. But basically, people grow up in a society in which they form their character on the basis of a reaction to their environment. In this process, they are conditioned by their experiences within their families and their neighborhoods. They react to the ambience, with their own predisposition, likes, and dislikes. It is well accepted that young people, and also adults, are influenced by past positive and negative experiences, the so-called risk and protective factors. Risk factors, as do positive factors, center on the family, school, work, peer influences, and leisure activities. Among the risk factors, for both the young and for adults, some are also predictive of recidivism, including negative antisocial behaviors, antisocial attitudes, antisocial personality, friends with antisocial patterns of behavior, and a history of previous offenses. Other factors also correlate with the prediction of antisocial behaviors. These include living in a family that is lacking the essential, wholesome presence of positive caregivers, with their sound healthy supervision and their affection and love. Substance abuse and persistent negative leisure activities are very influential as well. Protective factors include growing up within a good stable family, attending good schools, having positive peer influences, and the selection of positive leisure activities. It is basically assumed that the exposure to these positive environmental and protective

Juvenile Desistance and Community Disadvantage: The Role of Appropriate Accommodations and Engagements

In recent years, juvenile justice systems have shown renewed interest in ensuring effective programming and support for young offenders as they reenter the community. These services often focus on suitable accommodations, education, work-based employment, and engagement in conventional activities. Recent studies also suggest, however, that these services may not have the desired impact in the community (i.e. desistance) if underlying community-level risk factors are not attended to. This may especially be the case for young offenders. Given the developmental literature underscoring the heightened sensitivity of youth to external conditions, this study focuses attention on the recidivism of young offenders in the United Kingdom. Data from 2005 through 2009 show that changes in appropriate accommodation and engagement offered to ex-offenders in a community are both related to a community’s rate of youth reoffending; however, the strength of this relationship differs across level of community disadvantage.

Does Resilience Predict Recidivism in Young Offenders?

Resilience has been proposed as a protective factor against recidivism and is included for consideration in at least one widely used violence risk assessment instrument. However, resilience is a complex construct rarely subjected to empirical research with offenders. This study sought to redress this by examining the relationship between resilience and recidivism using a psychometrically sound measure of resilience in a sample of young adult offenders. Results showed no statistical association between resilience and criminal charges during a 7–12 month follow-up. The Level of Service/Case Management inventory (LS/CMI) Total Score, intelligence (IQ) and history of assault were significantly associated with recidivism. LS/CMI Total Score and IQ were retained as significant predictors in the logistic regression model, which showed good predictive accuracy (AUC = 0.76, 95% CI 0.64–0.87). These results suggest that clarification of the construct of resilience may be required, or that resilience may not be associated with recidivism.

Prevalence of Mental Disorders and Recidivism in Young Offenders

Several studies report that incarcerated young offenders show a high rate of psychiatric disorders whereas associations between specific psychiatric disorders and recidivism remain unknown. The Brazilian legal system has created a unique opportunity for the study of this issue when consider young offenders not that guilty in spite of the severity of the crime, settling in three years the maximum period of incarceration. This study aims to determine the rate of psychiatric disorders in a cohort of incarcerated young offenders and evaluate the possible psychiatric connections of primary offenders and recidivism. A group of 898 incarcerated young offenders at Fundação Casa answered psychiatric interviews and was diagnosed according to the criteria of ICD-10. Statistic connections were analyzed using the tests of Pearson and Cramer. The cohort was comprised of 619 primaries and 267 recidivists. 'Psychoactive Substance Use' and 'Disorders of Adult Personality and Behavior' categories were related to recidivism, whereas 'Organic Mental Disorders', 'Mood Disorders', and 'Stress-related Disorders' were related to primary offenders. Discriminating disorders were the most likely to represent reactions to primary incarceration. In relation to associations that might represent predictors of crime, it became highly suggestive that substance abuse is the main cause of incarceration for the entire cohort.

Recidivism after a Treatment in a Disciplinary Centre for Juveniles

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)...AbstractThe aim of this paper is to examine recidivists' and non-recidivists' differences in characteristics of the psychosocial functioning after a treatment in a Disciplinary Centre for Juveniles in Sarajevo Canton, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The research was conducted on a sample of 131 juvenile delinquents adjudicated with the educational measure of referral to the juvenile disciplinary centre. The statistical analysis was performed in the SPSS 17.0 program package. The differences between recidivists and non-recidivists were measured using Mann-Whitney test on all variables. A group of four variables were compared by: (a) school factors, (b) family factors, (c) spare time activities and peer relationships and (d) personality and behaviour of juveniles. The results have shown that risk factors are more pronounced in recidivists in all four areas of the psychosocial functioning. The largest difference is in the areas related to spare time activities and peer-relationships, as well as family functioning. The results indicate that the intensified treatment should focus on these areas in order to prevent recidivism.Keywords: recidivism, educational measure, responsiveness factorsIntroductionEvery society had its youth whose behaviour deviated from the socially acceptable and as such it was condemned or sanctioned in one way or another. Juvenile delinquency is a dynamic category subjected to various changes in its scope, phenomenology and implemented interventions. In comparison to crime committed by adults, juvenile delinquency is specific in terms of the age category of offenders, motivation, type of offense and applicable interventions (1). Youth engaged crime represents a considerable problem for society and their families (2). It remains an unresolved question how to respond to the delinquent behaviour and with what methods, e.g. sanctions, while simultaneously ensuring that they take responsibility for their behaviour, since it is necessary to establish a balance between the retribution and rehabilitation elements each sanction has (3). Educational measures are now the largest and the most frequently pronounced type of criminal sanctions for juveniles, with the purpose of providing education, rehabilitation and a proper development of the juvenile (4). Amongst all education measures, a significant place is reserved for the educational measure of referral to the Disciplinary Centre due to its specificities in relation to its implementation and juveniles adjudicated with this measure. The purpose of the imposition of these measures is that, in a relatively short period of time, a powerful impact may be achieved in children via various strategies, in strictly structured conditions by means of direct methods focused on behavioural modifications, development of a personal responsibility and prevention of future criminal acts (4). The efficiency of a treatment method may be assessed by measuring the number of juveniles who come again into conflict with the law (recidivism) or via other different indicators of progress in social functioning (5). Considering the consensus in general literature that adult criminals begin their criminal careers in their juvenile years suggesting that, in order to fight adult criminality, we must begin by controlling juvenile delinquency, the recidivism of young offenders presents an even more disturbing problem. Understanding juvenile recidivism is crucial for the development of effective policy responses to the broader ramifications of juvenile offense (6). Recidivism is most frequently defined as any arrest or offence within a specified follow-up period after release from a detention or rehabilitation facility (7) and it is alsoa key indicator for determining whether criminal justice interventions, from diversion to incarceration, are making a difference in turning offenders away from crime. …

Restorative justice conferencing for reducing recidivism in young offenders (aged 7 to 21)

Restorative justice is "a process whereby parties with a stake in a specific offence resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future" (Marshall 2003). Despite the increasing use of restorative justice programmes as an alternative to court proceedings, no systematic review has been undertaken of the available evidence on the effectiveness of these programmes with young offenders. Recidivism in young offenders is a particularly worrying problem, as recent surveys have indicated the frequency of re-offences for young offenders has ranged from 40.2% in 2000 to 37.8% in 2007 (Ministry of Justice 2009) To evaluate the effects of restorative justice conferencing programmes for reducing recidivism in young offenders. We searched the following databases up to May 2012: CENTRAL, 2012 Issue 5, MEDLINE (1978 to current), Bibliography of Nordic Criminology (1999 to current), Index to Theses (1716 to current), PsycINFO (1887 to current), Social Sciences Citation Index (1970 to current), Sociological Abstracts (1952 to current), Social Care Online (1985 to current), Restorative Justice Online (1975 to current), Scopus (1823 to current), Science Direct (1823 to current), LILACS (1982 to current), ERIC (1966 to current), Restorative Justice Online (4 May 2012), WorldCat (9 May 2012), ClinicalTrials.gov (19 May 2012) and ICTRP (19 May 2012). ASSIA, National Criminal Justice Reference Service and Social Services Abstracts were searched up to May 2011. Relevant bibliographies, conference programmes and journals were also searched. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs of restorative justice conferencing versus management as usual, in young offenders. Two authors independently assessed the risk of bias of included trials and extracted the data. Where necessary, original investigators were contacted to obtain missing information. Four trials including a total of 1447 young offenders were included in the review. Results failed to find a significant effect for restorative justice conferencing over normal court procedures for any of the main analyses, including number re-arrested (odds ratio (OR) 1.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.59 to 1.71; P = 0.99), monthly rate of reoffending (standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.06, 95% CI -0.28 to 0.16; P = 0.61), young person's remorse following conference (OR 1.73, 95% CI 0.97 to 3.10; P = 0.06), young person's recognition of wrongdoing following conference (OR 1.97, 95% CI 0.81 to 4.80; P = 0.14), young person's self-perception following conference (OR 0.95, 95% CI 0.55 to 1.63; P = 0.85), young person's satisfaction following conference (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.04 to 4.07; P = 0.45) and victim's satisfaction following conference (OR 4.05, 95% CI 0.56 to 29.04; P = 0.16). A small number of sensitivity analyses did indicate significant effects, although all are to be interpreted with caution. There is currently a lack of high quality evidence regarding the effectiveness of restorative justice conferencing for young offenders. Caution is urged in interpreting the results of this review considering the small number of included studies, subsequent low power and high risk of bias. The effects may potentially be more evident for victims than offenders. The need for further research in this area is highlighted.

Applying Risk/Need Assessment to Probation Practice and its Impact on the Recidivism of Young Offenders

Evaluating the extent to which case management practices are guided by risk/need assessment is important because the impact of the assessment process will not be realized if the instrument is not applied as fully intended. This study investigated whether risk/need assessment is linked to the case management of young offenders and whether adherence to the principles of risk, need, and responsivity, as part of the case management plan, is related to recidivism. Data were collected on a sample of 192 young offenders. The Level of Service Inventory–Saskatchewan Youth Edition (LSI-SK) total score and seven of the eight subscale scores were positively correlated with recidivism. Generally, the LSI-SK was used to inform supervision intensity and interventions toward criminogenic needs. Moreover, adherence to the need principle was associated with reductions in recidivism. Implications for case management and direction for future research are discussed.

Prediction of recidivism in young offenders after brief institutionalization.

Administered 100 delinquent adolescent boys a battery of tests that measured intelligence, mental control, self-concept and physical fitness. The battery of tests was administered at the beginning and at the end of short-term institutional placement (M = 6 months) and again 1 to 2 years after release from the institution. Significant prediction of prosocial behavior in the year after institutionalization was achieved by using tests that reflected mental control and academic achievement. Background variables such as race, socioeconomic status, family status, and previous criminal charges were not related significantly to presence or absence of antisocial behavior during the year after institutionalization. Implications for management and treatment are discussed.