Prediction of Rehabilitation Success of Delinquent Boys

• NCJ Number: 73381
• Journal: Journal of Offender Counseling, Service and Rehabilitation Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Dated: (Summer 1980) Pages: 319-329
• Author(s): R T Goldberg; B D Johnson
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Only vocational training or other schooling helped to predict the rehabilitation success of 109 delinquent boys in a community-based program which was analyzed by stepwise multiple regression.

Abstract

Each boy was selected at random for a research and demonstration program and matched and paired with a control group by court, father's occupation, presence of father in the home, and type of offense. The predictive efficiency of the following independent measures was assessed: age, school grade, presence of father in the home, socioeconomic level of head of household, boy in school or dropout, urban or suburban court, age at first offense, and total severity of all offenses. Nine criterion variables were used to assess rehabilitation outcome. Three of the variables were change scores derived from three tests--the Goldberg Scale of Vocational Development, Maher's sentence completion test, and Rosenberg's self-esteem test. Rehabilitation case closure status was the official agency criterion of success. A dichotomous measure of current activity was scored as unemployed versus working, in school, or in armed services. Working boys were measured on a percentage of time employed. A dichotomous measure of school listing was divided into school dropout and school completed. Two measures of recidivism were taken--new offenses after project closure and total severity of offenses measured during 2 years after entering active services. Rehabilitation counseling was found to have a positive effect upon rehabilitation closure; however, the counseling did not have a significant effect on the reduction of recidivism. The older boy from a suburban court, who came from a higher social class, with a higher vocational maturity level initially, and who received schooling through the rehabilitation agency, had a better change of successful employment. Tabular data and 11 references are provided.