Adult Life Adjustment of Vulnerable Youths. The Relationship Between Criminal History, Employment History and Adult Life Outcomes

Abstract

Purpose This article examines adult outcomes of vulnerable youths. Methods The sample consists of 251 boys and girls who were institutionalized in a Dutch juvenile justice institution in the 1990s. Information on personal and childhood characteristics was extracted from treatment files that were compiled during their stay in the institution. In addition, conviction data was used to determine subjects' criminal careers. Conducting face-to-face interviews with these former JJI detainees when they were on average 34 years old, we collected retrospective information on employment history and several important current life course outcomes. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify distinct offending and employment groups. Results Results showed that previously institutionalized youths experience difficulties adjusting to conventional adult life. Most personal and childhood characteristics exert no significant effect on adult outcomes. Criminal behaviour in young adulthood does J Dev Life Course Criminology (2016) 2:466-493 DOI 10.1007/s40865-016-0040-

Adult outcomes of youths who have spent time in a judicial treatment institution in the Netherlands

“…Of the 499 men and women we were able to approach, 251 agreed to an interview, resulting in a 50.3% response rate. Non-response analysis in which responders and non-responders were compared on a range of background and current characteristics revealed that the subsample is generally representative of the original sample (for more information, see Van der Geest, Bijleveld & Verbruggen, 2013;Verbruggen et al, 2016).…”

“…In earlier work on the 17up sample, group-based trajectory modelling had been used to estimate offending trajectories from ages 18 to 34 (Verbruggen et al, 2016), and these offending trajectories are used in the current study as well. As discussed in Verbruggen et al (2016), officially registered data on convictions, retrieved from the judicial documentation abstracts of the Netherlands Ministry of Security and Justice, was used.…”

“…As discussed in Verbruggen et al (2016), officially registered data on convictions, retrieved from the judicial documentation abstracts of the Netherlands Ministry of Security and Justice, was used. Group-based trajectory modelling (Nagin, 1999;Nagin, 2005) is a technique that identifies clusters of individuals following developmental pathways that are relatively similar in both the level and shape of offending with age (Nagin, 1999).…”

“…One of the exceptions is an earlier study from the Netherlands that examined adult life adjustment of previously institutionalised youths who were followed up to an average age of 34 (Verbruggen, Van der Geest & Blokland, 2016). Using the same sample as in the current study, the Verbruggen et al (2016) research used a composite scale of adult life adjustment to determine how well previously institutionalised youths were adjusted to adult life domains. Findings indicated that institutionalised youths experienced problems in several conventional life domains.…”

“…The current study aims to build upon the study by Verbruggen et al (2016), by firstly, providing a more detailed examination of adult outcomes of institutionalised youths by investigating life domains separately rather than looking at a composite measure of adult life adjustment, and secondly, by examining to which kind of factors the generally poorer adult outcomes of institutionalised youths are attributable. Although research generally points to negative outcomes among care leavers, there is debate about the precise reasons for these adverse outcomes.…”