Effects of restorative justice pre‐file diversion legislation on juvenile filing rates: An interrupted time‐series analysis

Abstract

This study uses an interrupted time-series design to analyze the impacts of legislatively supported restorative justice pilot projects in Colorado on overall juvenile filing rates in implementing districts, and it compares those outcomes with nonimplementing districts. On average, pilot districts demonstrate statistically significant reductions in juvenile filing rates during the first year of funding, and significant rates of decline are sustained in the years after initiation. The effects of restorative justice pre-file diversion systems, however, vary by judicial district, and they can be partially explained by differences in implementation. Policy Implications: Restorative justice pre-file diversion programs accompanied by funding supports and accountability measures-introduced by the Colorado legislature in 2014-are associated with varying declines in juvenile court filings. Implementation matters, however. States considering the use of similar reforms should account for how to best support pilot sites' localized characteristics. Funding restorative justice pre-file diversion presents one mechanism for reducing court involvement, but it should not be offered as a panacea.

Evaluating Oregon’s Justice Reinvestment Act: An Interrupted Time-Series Regression of State-Level Outcomes

“…Common applications of ITS analyses are found in psychology, public health, and education policy evaluation. In criminal justice studies, it can be used for both the evaluation of policy and treatment programs such as the effect of California’s “three-strikes” law (Ramirez & Crano, 2003), the “war on police” theory in post-Ferguson America (White et al, 2019), or restorative justice projects on juvenile court filings (Sliva & Plassmeyer, 2021). The analytic plan consists of three parts: (1) identification of autocorrelation, (2) model specification, and (3) regression modeling and analysis.…”