Effectiveness of Multisystemic Therapy for gang-involved youth offenders: One year follow-up analysis of recidivism outcomes

Boxer, Paul; Docherty, Meagan; Ostermann, Michael; Kubik, Joanna; Veysey, Bonita M.

doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.12.008

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…For too long, gang programming has been divorced from the broader movement of prevention science. We believe that the present results, and those of Esbensen and colleagues () and of Boxer and colleagues (), demonstrate that that should no longer be the case. Evidence‐based gang programs based on rigorous scientific standards can and should be developed.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 63%

“…At pretest, 15% of the sample reported ever being a gang member and 7% reported current gang membership. Although in line with previous point estimates of the prevalence of gang membership (Boxer et al., ; Melde and Esbensen, ; Thornberry et al., ), the number of active gang members, about five per condition, is too small to support analysis of this important subpopulation separately. Instead, we developed a measure of “gang risk” by combining the available measures of gang involvement.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 71%

“…For youth who received MST, they found no significant differences in the prevalence or frequency of rearrests by gang status. That is, the rates were not significantly different for those involved and not involved in gang activity, which suggests that the impact of MST was approximately equal for gang‐involved and nongang‐involved youth (Boxer et al., ).…”

Section: Strategies To Develop Evidence‐based Gang Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Positive effects were evident for several outcomes and persisted at least 18 months posttreatment. Boxer and colleagues () reported that MST was as effective for gang‐involved youth as for nongang‐involved youth in terms of rearrest 12 months after discharge, and the findings from several studies have demonstrated the overall effectiveness of MST in RCTs (Henggeler et al., ). Esbensen and colleagues () found that the revised G.R.E.A.T.…”

Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This outcome was particularly strong for active gang members where only 38% of the cases closed successfully, as compared with 78% of the other cases (Boxer et al, 2015). More recently, Boxer, Docherty, Ostermann, Kubik, and Veysey (2017) extended their examination of the effectiveness of MST for gang-involved youth to the study of rearrest rates 12 months posttreatment. For youth who received MST, they found no significant differences in the prevalence or frequency of rearrests by gang status.…”

Section: Strategies To Develop Evidence-based Gang Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reducing Crime Among Youth at Risk for Gang Involvement

Thornberry

Kearley

Gottfredson

et al. 2018

Criminology & Public Policy

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Research Summary No gang prevention or intervention programs meet the standards for effectiveness promulgated by Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development. This randomized controlled trial of a well‐known program—Functional Family Therapy—that was modified to address the needs of gang‐involved adolescents yields two main findings. First, youth at high risk for gang membership and their families engaged with and successfully completed the program at the same level as low‐gang‐risk youth. Second, the effectiveness results varied by gang‐risk status. For youth at high risk for gang membership, the treatment group had significantly lower recidivism rates at the 18‐month follow‐up as compared with a “treatment as usual” control group. For youth at low risk for gang membership, however, no consistent differences were found between the treated and control groups. Policy Implications Modifying and extending evidence‐based delinquency programs to gang‐involved youth seems to be a reasonable strategy for developing a wider array of effective programs to respond to the challenge of street gangs. The differential findings by gang‐risk status suggests that the juvenile justice system should expand the use of evidence‐based community programs to higher risk youth, including those identified as being “at risk” because of their gang involvement.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Strategies To Develop Evidence‐based Gang Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Strategies To Develop Evidence-based Gang Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Reducing Crime Among Youth at Risk for Gang Involvement

Thornberry

Kearley

Gottfredson

et al. 2018

Criminology & Public Policy

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Multisystemic Therapy® for social, emotional, and behavioural problems in youth age 10 to 17: An updated systematic review and meta‐analysis

Littell

Pigott

Nilsen

et al. 2021

Campbell Systematic Reviews

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Background: Multisystemic Therapy® (MST®) is an intensive, home-based intervention for families of youth with social, emotional, and behavioural problems. MST therapists engage family members in identifying and changing individual, family, and environmental factors thought to contribute to problem behaviour. Intervention may include efforts to improve communication, parenting skills, peer relations, school performance, and social networks. MST is widely considered to be a wellestablished, evidence-based programme. Objectives: We assessed (1) impacts of MST on out-of-home placements, crime and delinquency, and other behavioural and psychosocial outcomes for youth and families; (2) consistency of effects across studies; and (3) potential moderators of effects including study location, evaluator independence, and risks of bias.

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