An experimental evaluation of teen courts

Abstract

Teen Court (TC) is a juvenile diversion program designed to prevent the formal processing of first-time juvenile offenders within the juvenile justice system. TC instead utilizes informal processing and sanctions in order to prevent future offending. Despite its widespread popularity throughout the United States of America, little rigorous research has been conducted on the effectiveness of the TC model for reducing recidivism. Using an experimental design, this study examined the effectiveness of TC in reducing recidivism and improving the attitudes and opinions of juvenile offenders in comparison with a control group of youth who were formally processed. Self-reported delinquency was higher for those youth who participated in TC. TC youth were also found to have significantly lower scores on a scale of belief in conventional rules than had youth who were processed in the Department of Juveniles Services. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Gender differences in effects of teen courts on delinquency: A theory-guided evaluation

“…The program is growing in popularity despite mixed findings on its effectiveness from evaluation studies. This study extended an earlier study of the effectiveness of TCs (Stickle, Connell, Dugas, & Gottfredson, 2008) by applying criminological theory to understand the mechanisms through which TCs might influence subsequent delinquency. It tested the hypothesis, based on labeling theory, that TCs may increase informal labels.…”

“…The most rigorous study of TCs to date was implemented by Stickle et al (2008). Participants who qualified for TC were randomly assigned to either TC or to receive "treatment as usual" by the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS).…”

The Impact of Teen Courts on Youth Outcomes: A Systematic Review

“…In fact, Norton et al's (2013) evaluation of school-based courts in Pennsylvania included explicit recommendations on the need to create program theory about the ways in which Teen Courts could impact the outcomes under study (subsequent disciplinary infractions). Only two studies (Stickle et al 2008;Forgays and DeMilio 2005) described having conducted assessments to examine the fidelity of the courts to a theoretical model.…”

“…Less information was provided on traditional justice processing, which could range from a warning to an appearance before a juvenile court. This limitation was acknowledged by a few authors, including Stickle et al (2008), who described the inability to fully describe the interventions received by youth in the comparison group as a limitation to their work.…”

“…These mixed findings may result from the wide variation in the methodological consistency and quality of research studies conducted to date. For example, few effectiveness studies have included a comparison group and even fewer have included one that is methodologically appropriate (e.g., comparable on key variables such as age or type of offense) (Stickle et al 2008; Administrative Office of the Courts 1995). While recent efforts to describe the current state of the evidence on Teen Courts provide a useful starting place to understand the impact of such programs, these studies have fallen short in their ability to systematically identify all relevant literature, examine direction and size of program effects, and consider variations in methodological quality when synthesizing study results (Puzach and Haas 2014;Schwalbe et al 2012).…”