NCJ Number
85280
Date Published
1981
Length
21 pages
Annotation
The status offender deinstitutionalization program in Clark County (Washington) was evaluated with respect to its effects on the detention of status offenders and on the recidivism rates of the youths in the program.
Abstract
The federally funded program centered around crisis intervention counseling provided by two court probation officers and family crisis intervention counseling provided by volunteers trained and directed by the project probation officers. The evaluation was originally planned to incorporate an experimental design involving random assignment of eligible status offenders into an experimental group which received program services and a control group which did not receive the services. However, the random assignment procedure was not applied. Since the misassigned cases constituted a significant proportion of the sample, they were retained in the evaluation. Multiple regression analysis was used to control for the unexpected placement of males and youths with prior offenses in the experimental group than in the control group. Data on all youth entering the court from 1972 onward were used in the determination of whether the program was effective in the year following its beginning in July 1976. Findings indicated that the program reduced the detention of status offenders both directly and indirectly. In addition, the project activities reduced the recidivism rate of status offenders. The results provide no assurance that this type of program would reduce detention rates and recidivism rates in other areas, particularly those with lower initial rates on each of these indicators. Figures, tables, notes, and a list of 50 references are provided.