NCJ Number
122764
Date Published
1989
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This followup study of 39,250 males, born between 1964 and 1971 and having official delinquency records in South Carolina, reviewed how many recidivated as inmates or as adult probationers.
Abstract
Adult agencies' records were checked through December 31, 1988, meaning that length eligibility for the adult system varied from less than 1 year to 8 years, depending on the subject's birth date. A total of 6,351 matches in the adult system were found, with the highest rate (27 percent) occurring in the oldest birth group (1964). Delinquent males born in 1967, selected for a special separate analysis, had a match rate of 20 percent after 4 to 5 years of adult eligibility. Examination of the study population's characteristics as juvenile offenders using 1 year, e.g., the 1967 cohort, revealed that males having only one court contact for delinquency were unlikely to recidivate as adults (probability of 13 percent). For subjects having at least one juvenile disposition of probation, the probability of adult criminality increased to 29 percent, and those institutionalized at least once as juveniles recidivated in adulthood at a rate of 56 percent. The study also verified that substantial proportions of adult inmates and probationers born in 1964-71 had juvenile records in South Carolina. 11 tables.