TY - JOUR
T1 - Crossroads in juvenile justice
T2 - The impact of initial processing decision on youth 5 years after first arrest
AU - Cauffman, Elizabeth
AU - Beardslee, Jordan
AU - Fine, Adam
AU - Frick, Paul J.
AU - Steinberg, Laurence
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding Statement. The Crossroads Study is supported by funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the County of Orange, the Fudge Family Foundation, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the National Institute of Justice.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - The current study advances past research by studying the impact of juvenile justice decision making with a geographically and ethnically diverse sample (N = 1,216) of adolescent boys (ages 13-17 years) for the 5 years following their first arrest. Importantly, all youth in the study were arrested for an eligible offense of moderate severity (e.g., assault, theft) to evaluate whether the initial decision to formally (i.e., sentenced before a judge) or informally (i.e., diverted to community service) process the youth led to differences in outcomes. The current study also advanced past research by using a statistical approach that controlled for a host of potential preexisting vulnerabilities that could influence both the processing decision and the youth's outcomes. Our findings indicated that youth who were formally processed during adolescence were more likely to be re-arrested, more likely to be incarcerated, engaged in more violence, reported a greater affiliation with delinquent peers, reported lower school enrollment, were less likely to graduate high school within 5 years, reported less ability to suppress aggression, and had lower perceptions of opportunities than informally processed youth. Importantly, these findings were not moderated by the age of the youth at his first arrest or his race and ethnicity. These results have important implications for juvenile justice policy by indicating that formally processing youth not only is costly, but it can reduce public safety and reduce the adolescent's later potential contributions to society.
AB - The current study advances past research by studying the impact of juvenile justice decision making with a geographically and ethnically diverse sample (N = 1,216) of adolescent boys (ages 13-17 years) for the 5 years following their first arrest. Importantly, all youth in the study were arrested for an eligible offense of moderate severity (e.g., assault, theft) to evaluate whether the initial decision to formally (i.e., sentenced before a judge) or informally (i.e., diverted to community service) process the youth led to differences in outcomes. The current study also advanced past research by using a statistical approach that controlled for a host of potential preexisting vulnerabilities that could influence both the processing decision and the youth's outcomes. Our findings indicated that youth who were formally processed during adolescence were more likely to be re-arrested, more likely to be incarcerated, engaged in more violence, reported a greater affiliation with delinquent peers, reported lower school enrollment, were less likely to graduate high school within 5 years, reported less ability to suppress aggression, and had lower perceptions of opportunities than informally processed youth. Importantly, these findings were not moderated by the age of the youth at his first arrest or his race and ethnicity. These results have important implications for juvenile justice policy by indicating that formally processing youth not only is costly, but it can reduce public safety and reduce the adolescent's later potential contributions to society.
KW - adolescence
KW - diversion
KW - inverse probability weighting
KW - juvenile justice policy
KW - processing decision
KW - recidivism
KW - risk-taking
KW - social policy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105482864&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1017/S095457942000200X
DO - 10.1017/S095457942000200X
M3 - Article
C2 - 33955345
AN - SCOPUS:85105482864
SN - 0954-5794
VL - 33
SP - 700
EP - 713
JO - Development and psychopathology
JF - Development and psychopathology
IS - 2
ER -