Predictors of Offense Severity, Adjudication, Incarceration, and Repeat Referrals for Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

The authors examined predictors of offense severity, judicial disposition (e.g., diversion, prosecution, incarceration), and repeat offending. Data were obtained on approximately 100,000 individuals from the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice. Whites and females were more likely to be prosecuted than Blacks and males, particularly for less serious offenses. At first and second referrals, Blacks were more likely to be incarcerated than Whites. Youth referred before age 14 were more likely to recidivate and youth prosecuted for earlier offenses were more likely to recidivate than those not prosecuted. Father absence and special education status were also predictive of recidivism. Prosecution for first referral was predictive of earlier reoffending at all severity levels of first offense.

Juvenile offenders with and without disabilities: Risks and patterns of recidivism

“…Academic factors discriminating recidivists from non-recidivists include deficits in basic skills and special education background (Archwamety & Katsiyannis, 1998;Katsiyannis & Archwamety, 1997). Higher rates of recidivism are also found among juvenile offenders who are African Americans (Gavazzi, Yarcheck, Sullivan, Jones, & Khurana, 2008) and males (Barrett et al, 2010). However, African-American young people did not differ significantly when accounting for lower than mean risk levels in accountability and education.…”

“…The method used was proportional hazards regression (also termed Cox regression), a type of survival/ failure analysis (Singer & Willett, 2003). This analysis technique was used previously to examine the likelihood of and timing of recidivism (e.g., Barrett et al, 2010;Zhang, Katsiyannis, Barrett, & Willson, 2007). In this proportional hazards regression analysis, recidivism (repeated offense) is predicted by time, possibly adjusting for various other entry characteristics of the students.…”

“…They found that neglectful parenting was associated with more serious delinquency. Father absence has also been found to predict repeat offending (Barrett et al, 2010). Child personal and academic variables appear to be related to recidivism.…”

“…One of the strongest predictors of recidivism is age at first arrest, with those who were first arrested at a younger age much more likely to become recidivists (Barrett, Katsiyannis, & Zhang, 2006, 2010. Juvenile offenders with foster care experience are four times more likely to be early starting delinquents than youth with no foster care experience; youth with a family member convicted of a felony are two times more likely to be early starting delinquents than youth with no family felony (Alltucker, Bullis, Close, & Yovanoff, 2006).…”

Socio-cognitive and personal characteristics of young offenders: a field study

“…This suggests that these juveniles do not have a higher incidence of eating disorders than the young people belonging to the standard group, which is found to be in clear contradiction to what is evidenced by other studies that indicate that stress and psychosocial adversity -especially deriving from family dynamics -constitute factors that are clearly involved in the development of eating disorders (Behar & Valdés, 2009 Table 5 Classification These differences could be explained, at least in part, by the adequacy of the context and family dynamics perceived by the group of juvenile offenders in the present study, which they assess, according to the results obtained in the FAM scale, as free of conflicts and experiences of misunderstanding that generate interferences for them in their functioning and behaviour. Nevertheless, the satisfaction with the family climate displayed by the group of juvenile offenders should not be confused with this being adequate or with the fact of the educational styles being appropriate; above all, in the knowledge that low parental involvement in the life of young people is strongly related to criminal recidivism (Barrett, Katsiyannis, & Zhang, 2010), as well as the fact that poor parent-child interaction constitutes an important risk factor for the development of antisocial and criminal behaviour, while warm relationships would act as a protective factor (Armenta, Corral, López, Díaz, & Peña, 2001).…”