NCJ Number
116273
Journal
Juvenile and Family Court Journal Volume: 40 Issue: 1 Dated: (1989) Pages: 49-62
Date Published
1989
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article examines a program designed to provide a family court with a means of lessening the probability that youths on probation for shoplifting will return to criminal behavior.
Abstract
A single staff member within the family court screened possible participants, all of whom were defined as first-time shoplifting offenders and had been assigned to formal or informal probation. Each individual was invited to participate in a 4-hour clinic, during which time the realities and possible consequences of shoplifting were explained. If they were able to successfully complete 6 months of supervised probation, then only the administrative record remained; the conviction itself was expunged. Over a period of 9 months, a total of 154 juveniles were invited; however, only 100 actually took part in all facets of the program. A total of 30 clinic attendees and 14 nonparticipants were excluded from the present analysis, owing to missing data, or the fact that at the time of followup, they were legally classified as adults. The prior and subsequent court contacts of 110 subjects are reviewed. While less than 3 percent of either group had subsequent shoplifting arrests, nearly 26 percent of the program group and 35 percent of the nonparticipants were rearrested. Factors associated with long-term success and failure are examined. Possible reasons for these observations are discussed, with specific grounding in the shoplifting literature and the concepts of juvenile diversion and 'net-widening.' (Publisher abstract)