Results indicate a three class solution provided the optimal fit with the data for each gender group: a Lower Health Risk group, a Higher Health Risk group, and a Highest Health Risk group. Multinomial logistic regression analysis identified significant sociodemographic and depression effects among both male and female youth. Conclusions/Importance: Youth characterized by risky sexually behavior, elevated depression, and drug involvement should be the focus of integrated intervention services. This study documents the critical need for front end, juvenile justice intake facilities to provide behavioral and public health screening, with treatment follow-up, on newly arrested youth.

Truant youth are likely to engage in a number of problem behaviors, including sexual risky behaviors. Previous research involving non-truant youth has found sexual risk behaviors to be related to marijuana use and depression, with differential effects for male and female youth. Using data collected in a NIDA funded, prospective intervention project, results are reported of a male-female, multi-group, longitudinal analysis of the relationships among truant youth baseline sexual risk behavior, marijuana use, and depression, and their sexual risk behavior over four follow-up time points. Results indicated support for the longitudinal model, with female truants having higher depression scores, and showing stronger relationships between baseline depression and future engagement in sexual risk behavior, than male truants. Findings suggest that incorporating strategies to reduce depression and marijuana use may decrease youth sexual risk behavior.

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Satisfied employees are essential to an organization, as they are often the primary means for meeting organizational needs. Job satisfaction is particularly important among criminal justice agencies, specifically probation agencies that largely rely on personnel for the supervision and rehabilitation of individuals. Yet, the correlates of job satisfaction among juvenile probation staff are largely unknown. Following organizational climate theory, the current study utilizes baseline data from the Juvenile Justice–Translational Research on Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS) initiative, a project conducted in seven states with 36 participating juvenile probation agencies. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were utilized to examine the latent structure of organizational characteristics and potential mediating effects. Regression analyses were utilized to examine the direct relationship between job satisfaction and personal and organizational factors. Results highlight the importance of workplace factors and suggest efforts toward improving job satisfaction should focus on the improvement of organizational characteristics.

Youth involved in the juvenile justice system demonstrate greater risk of exposure to negative life experiences. The present study explores the prevalence of three stress-related experiences (sexual assault victimization, bullying/victimization, and minority sexual orientation) among newly arrested adolescents. Gender (biological sex) differences were examined as well as associations with sociodemographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, substance use, and sexually transmitted infection (STI). Factor analyses found a single factor of stress for both genders. Prevalence rates for bullying/victimization, sexual assault victimization, and sexual minority status were higher for girls than boys. Girls were also more likely than boys to test positive for STIs and experience depressive symptoms, while boys were more likely than girls to test positive for marijuana use. Depression and drug-related problems were associated with the stress construct for girls only. Bivariate comparisons with the three stress measures and sociodemographic characteristics indicated age and race effects. Implications are discussed.

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Focused on deterrence popular model to address community-level violence, however little research has examined the individual-level effect of deterrent messaging on subsequent offending. To answer this question, we utilize data on 254 gang- and group-involved probationers and parolees who attended offender “call-in” meetings as part of the Detroit Ceasefire. We employ inverse-probability weighting to construct a counterfactual comparison group from a sample of gang-involved young adults who were not subject to the Ceasefire call-in. We then use a Cox regression to estimate time to re-arrest. We find that individuals who were delivered a deterrent message at a call-in meeting had a longer time to re-arrest compared to a weighted comparison group for up to 3 years following the meeting.