Predicting the Transition From Juvenile Delinquency to Adult Criminality: Gender-specific Influences in Two High-risk Samples

• NCJ Number: 251889
• Journal: Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health Volume: 26 Issue: 5 Dated: December 2016 Pages: 336-351
• Author(s): Kimberly A. Rhoades; Leslie D. Leve; J. M. Eddy; Patricia Chamberlain
• Date Published: December 2016
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2013-JU-FX-0007
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study distinguished for men and women separately what variables identifiable in adolescent offenders predict their continuation of offending into adult life.

Abstract

Most juvenile offenders desist from offending as they become adults, but many continue and ultimately enter the adult corrections system. There has been little prospective examination of which variables may predict the latter transition, particularly for women. Results from the current study indicate that, for men, juvenile justice referrals alone predicted risk of any first adult arrest as well as arrest for felony arrest specifically. Each additional juvenile referral increased the risk of any adult arrest by 9 percent and of adult felony arrest by 8 percent. For women, family violence, parental divorce and cumulative childhood risk factors, but not juvenile justice referrals, were significant predictors of adult arrest. Each additional childhood risk factor increased the risk of adult arrest by 21 percent. Women who experienced parental divorce were nearly three times more likely to be arrested as an adult, and those who experienced family violence 2.5 times more so than those without such experiences. Study participants were 61 male and 81 female youths who had been referred from the juvenile justice system for chronic delinquency and recruited into randomized controlled trials that compared Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care with group care ('treatment as usual'). All participants had attained adulthood by the time of this study. The study first examined gender differences in childhood risk factors and then used Cox proportional‐hazards models to estimate the relationship of potential risk factors to first adult arrest. The study concludes that it has found preliminary evidence of gender differences in childhood risk factors for adult offending, and, thus potentially, for the development and use of interventions tailored differently for girls and boys and young men and young women to reduce their risk of becoming adult recidivists. (Publisher abstract modified)