NCJ Number
227086
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2009 Pages: 385-401
Date Published
April 2009
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined outcomes of matching services with youths' individual criminogenic needs and responsivity factors among a sample of offenders who were court referred for comprehensive mental health and risk and needs assessment.
Abstract
Results support the value of attending to and directly servicing youth according to their individual criminogenic needs as a means of meeting the rehabilitation ideals of the juvenile justice system. It was hypothesized that the positive impact of service matching according to specific criminogenic needs on time to recidivism and frequency of recidivism over the course of an approximate 3-year follow-up period was evident in the data. Specifically, youth for whom a low proportion of clinically identified needs were met via therapeutic services reoffended significantly earlier than did youth for whom a greater proportion of criminogenic needs were matched. Youth for whom less than one third of criminogenic needs were met through probation were more than 18 times more likely to reoffend prior to the end of the follow-up period than were those for whom the majority of their needs were met. Youth in the low needs match group had only 24 percent probability of surviving over the approximate 3-year follow-up period in comparison with those in the moderate and high needs match groups. Data were collected from 122 youth ranging in age from 12 to 18 years who were referred for a court-ordered assessment to a mental health agency in a large urban center in Ontario, Canada. Figures, tables, notes, and references