Juvenile recidivism: a comparison of three prediction instruments.

Risk-assessment instruments are increasingly being used, the majority of research evaluating such instruments with adult offenders. The purpose of this study was to compare three models being used to predict recidivism in juvenile offenders. Discriminant analysis was used to examine the extent to which these various models could discriminate between recidivists and nonrecidivists. The results indicated that only one model had adequate predictability. Since little research has been done with risk-prediction instruments for juvenile offenders, these results offer tentative promise for the future development of such an instrument.