NCJ Number
186913
Date Published
2000
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This report describes and evaluates the Philadelphia Youth Aid Panel (YAP), a community-based diversion program for first-time youthful offenders.
Abstract
YAP operates out of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and is an alternative sanction for first-time, low-level juvenile offenders. YAP provides an opportunity for eligible youth to choose to face a panel of volunteers from the community instead of a juvenile judge, thus allowing them to keep their records clean. The program includes elements that have proven to work with high-risk youth, including the involvement of community adults; priority attention from local law enforcement; partnerships between law enforcement and community institutions; and the provision of support to youth while they are held responsible for their behavior. This report describes the YAP program and how it operates, based on information collected through interviews and focus groups with youth panelists, parents, police officers, probation officers, and YAP staff. For the evaluation, data were collected and analyzed on 300 youth who participated in YAP in 1994 and were tracked through the juvenile and adult court record systems. A total of 300 similar youth who were arrested for low-level crimes in 1994 but did not participate in YAP were also tracked. Although this comparison group does not allow for definitive conclusions on the effectiveness of the YAP program, it does provide a context for examining the recidivism rates of YAP participants. In the 36-month period after their first arrest, 29.9 percent of the youth who completed a YAP contract were rearrested at least once, compared with 44.4 percent of the youth who did not participate in the YAP program. Three aspects of the program are cited in this report as being particularly noteworthy: its community-based nature, its balanced approach (support and accountability), and the involvement of the District Attorney's Office. Ten recommendations are offered for improving the program. 3 tables, 1 figure, and appended description of study methods