NCJ Number
191530
Journal
Prevention Science Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2000 Pages: 139-155
Date Published
2000
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article examined juvenile offenders’ recidivism following nonrandom assignment to juvenile diversion, juvenile diversion plus skill training, or juvenile diversion plus mentoring.
Abstract
Each delinquent youth who matures into a career criminal costs the taxpayers from $1.3 million to $1.5 million. To achieve clinical significance, an intervention for juvenile offenders must reduce recidivism significantly below the 50 percent base rate. This article compared juvenile offenders’ recidivism following nonrandom assignment to juvenile diversion (JD), JD plus skill training (ST), or JD plus mentoring (MEN). Intake characteristics that distinguished intervention groups were used to calculate assignment propensity scores. After propensity score blocking balanced intake characteristics, ST proved more cost effective than MEN, achieving a 14% relative reduction in recidivism at a savings of $33,600 per hundred youths. In ST, 37% were arrested 2 years or more after intake, compared to 51% in MEN and 46% in JD. In two of five propensity subclasses, time to first rearrest was longer in ST (M=767days) than in MEN (M=638 days) or JD (M=619 days). These results argue for an experimental comparison of ST and MEN and for observational studies with propensity analysis when randomization to juvenile justice interventions is not feasible. References