NCJ Number
77582
Date Published
1975
Length
63 pages
Annotation
An evaluation of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's program involving alternative dispositions for juvenile offenders is presented.
Abstract
The special diversion project was designed with experimental controls to evaluate the impact of four dispositions for referrable juvenile offenders. The four alternative dispositions included counseling and releasing, issuing a nondetained petition, referring the offender to a community agency, and referring the offender and purchasing agency services. The juvenile offenders in the project consisted of all juvenile offenders who were arrested by the sheriff's department during 3 months of 1974 and who were judged by the juvenile investigators to be referrable. For evaluation purposes, data on all offenders referred by the sheriff's department were compared with data on all offenders processed during the 3-month period prior to program initiation. The variables on which the comparisons were made between the two groups were number of cases, male/female ratio, age distribution, proportion of formal arrests, proportions with prior records, and mean seriousness of the instant offense. There were 306 cases during the experimental period and 287 during the prior period. Data analysis revealed that success in implementing referrals and continued service to referred offenders was high and met the standards established in the project plan. Parent and youth satisfaction with referral procedures were positive on the whole. An overall simple recidivism rate of 36 percent after 6 months almost met the 30 percent criterion established in the project plan. The youngster most likely to succeed, if released under the plan, is an older offender from a broken home with no prior record who committed a less serious or status offense. Eleven tables and 19 footnotes are provided.