1. From Residential Commitment to the Adult Criminal Justice System : a Follow-up of Juvenile Offenders Leaving Court-Ordered Secure Placements
- Author
-
Rosado, Sharmila and Rosado, Sharmila
- Subjects
- Juvenile detention homes., Juvenile delinquents., Centres pour jeunes délinquants., Jeunes délinquants., detention centers., Juvenile delinquents., Juvenile detention homes.
- Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to identify the needs of high risk juveniles leaving secure residential placements and identify which characteristics of these juveniles correlate with arrests as adults. Two research questions were examined. The first, what is the risk profile of juveniles leaving placement? The second, what factors correlate rearrests after juveniles leave residential commitments? A secondary analysis of existing data from a study conducted by Cox and Hasson (2010) was employed, which looked at 248 youth discharged from secure residential placement commitments. They collected data from the State of Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) CONDUIT database to evaluate the effectiveness of "step-down" programs implemented after youths were discharged from secure residential placement commitments. The current research study produced some thought-provoking results. For instance, after leaving commitment nearly 80% of juveniles were rearrested. The results also revealed that females were more likely to be dually committed, sexually victimized, had higher escape risks, and had more suicide attempts than males, and male juveniles were more likely to have more weapons involvement, gang affiliations and fire setting behaviors than female juveniles. Lastly, another finding that grabs attention is how there were eight out of 17 factors (dual commitment, escape risk, aggressive/assaultive, weapons involvement, drug use, sexual victimization, at risk behaviors, and commitment movements) that yielded statistically significant results. The results pointed out how it took longer for juveniles with a history of escape risk, at risk behaviors, and a history of multiple commitment movements to get rearrested after commitment.
- Published
- 2016