Cost Savings Assessment of Juvenile Arbitration Programs in Florida (From Proceedings of the 29th Annual Southern Conference on Corrections, P 34-52, 1984 - See NCJ-98537)

• NCJ Number: 98540
• Author(s): T Blomberg; G Heald; S Quesda; J Lickson
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 18 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study determined the cost savings attending Florida's statewide implementation of juvenile arbitration programs designed to divert first-time misdemeanants from formal juvenile justice processing.

Abstract

The four programs studied were representative of juvenile arbitration programs across the State. Detailed information was collected on the development, operations, and results of the programs. Further information was collected on 1983 case files, including referral source, charges, male-female distributions, and case dispositions. This information was computer-analyzed to categorize juvenile cases referred to each of the four programs. Research techniques included informal and structured interviewing as well as case, documentary, and statistical analyses. Major evaluation tasks (1) identified client targets of existing juvenile arbitration programs, (2) projected the number of juvenile justice system referrals suitable for arbitration, (3) estimated case costs of formal processing, and (4) estimated the cost savings of juvenile arbitration. Data analysis indicated that 88.6 percent of the clients were first-time misdemeanants, and the remaining 11.4 percent were first-time felons; 28,632 total cases were suitable for arbitration; estimated cost savings per case, assuming no 'net-widening,' averaged $311.80; when 'net-widening' was included, statewide cost-savings estimates of juvenile arbitration averaged $3,018,000. Tabular study data are provided.