Aftercare seeks to address challenges juveniles face when re-entering the community after residential placement. This study compares changes in recidivism in five Pennsylvania counties that piloted aftercare reforms in 2005 to 2010 as part of Models for Change to recidivism in counties that did not. The sample includes 3,107 referrals to court in…

The purpose of the study was to explore entrepreneurial training as a rehabilitation option to reduce recidivism for juvenile offenders. The problem is that juvenile offenders return to incarceration at alarming rates. The United States record of rehabilitating juvenile offenders has been challenging since its inception of Juvenile Court in 1899.…

Given high recidivism rates and the vulnerability of detained youth, the authors posit that juvenile detention centers may be most efficacious by serving as both place and process to create career opportunity through vocational training. The authors review the psychosocial factors contributing to delinquency and the primary theories of…

Reviews the Oregon Transition Support Initiative, an ongoing research and implementation project that prevents recidivism by helping stakeholders help incarcerated youth return to their communities. Discusses the transition process as the working relationships that together accomplish the common goal of seeing that youth offenders learn the life…

Reviews the process by which the juvenile justice system seems to worsen the problem it intends to cure. Reports on a study which found that youth who are arrested and adjudicated subsequently become more deliquent than their peers who have committed a recent felonious act but were not caught. (KH)

Presented findings from a study of a five-year cohort of youths processed through juvenile aid panels and juvenile court. These indicate that the rate of reappearance of youth processed through the panels was similar to that of youths processed through the court. This mechanism was at least as effective as court processing. (Author/BEF)

Specific Chinese program approaches yielding low recidivism were identified. The rehabilitation or reform approach is based upon three major interventions: education, labor, and ideological instruction. The juvenile system comprises three phases, each dependent upon the seriousness of the crime committed. Inmates are motivated and strive to become…

Juvenile Assessment Centers (JAC) can provide intervention through assessment of first-time misdemeanor offenders so that they do not become more involved in the juvenile justice system. In this practicum study, offenders are placed in a nonjudicial diversion and given a chance to repay the victim for the misdeed committed. In phase one of the…

This report evaluates the pilot Intensive Counseling Program which serves juvenile delinquents with community-based group (eight to ten youths) counseling sessions that meet at least four times a week, and are less expensive and more personalized than traditional residential treatment. Youths and parents contract for the program and must be able…

Over 5,200 youths processed through a Juvenile Assessment Center during a 20-month period were involved in this study of recidivism predictors. Significant relationships were found between the youths' demographics, dependency referral factors, delinquency referral history variables, and recidivism. Direct implications for service delivery and…

In this study, the authors examined the long-term criminal activity of 176 youths who had participated in either multisystemic therapy (MST) or individual therapy (IT) in a randomized clinical trial (C. M. Borduin et al., 1995). Arrest and incarceration data were obtained on average 13.7 (range = 10.2-15.9) years later when participants were on…

This evaluation profiles the population and studies the recidivism rate for Florida's three community-based, residential group treatment (GT) programs for juvenile delinquents not requiring the more intensive security and isolation of the state's training schools. Other ERIC documents describe the smaller (serving 7-25 youths) positive peer…

Project STEP (Short Term Elective Program) is an outdoor-educational program that, through teaching wilderness survival skills and affording a necessity for their use, provides juvenile delinquents with a feeling of self-reliance and self-worth. The program is designed for committed youths, primarily males, at least 13 to 14 years of age, but…

This study was designed to assess whether randomly selected male and female parolees could do as well without formal parole supervision as under conventional parole supervision. In addition, the kind and amount of help sought out and received within the community by the respective experimental and control group subjects was examined. The…

Services provided by agencies in the community neither reduce the rate of recidivism nor the tendency to commit increasing serious offenses. Subjects in an Ontario, Canada study had committed two or more offenses known to the police. Half the subjects received no service from any of the community agencies. Findings showed: (1) children who…