Social and Legal Factors Affecting the Decision Process To Refer and Place Youths in Massachusetts Department of Youth Services Secure Care Facilities - Summary Report

• NCJ Number: 81350
• Author(s): R E Isralowitz
• Date Published: 1977
• Length: 104 pages
• Grant Number(s): 77-NI-99-0036
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Brandeis University, Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare - doctoral dissertation

Annotation

This report summarizes a study that examined the effect of selected social and legal factors on the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) secure-care decisionmaking process for serious juvenile offenders.

Abstract

The decision process was examined at two levels: DYS caseworkers' decision to refer youths to the DYS Secure Care Review Team (SCRT) for secure care consideration and the SCRT's decision to accept or refuse youths to secure care. At the caseworker decision level, the bivariate analysis shows that the following factors are related to the decision to refer youth to the SCRT: age, ethnicity, family composition, number of DYS recorded offenses, number of serious and violent offenses, level of seriousness of last offense, number of detentions, number of secure detentions, number of commitments to DYS, and number of placements. Multivariate regression analysis shows that when legal variables are controlled, the only social variable related to decision outcome is family composition. When social variables are controlled, all legal variables related to decision outcome at the bivariate Level of analysis are also related to decision outcome at the multivariate level of analysis. Bivariate findings indicate that number of detentions and number of secure detentions are significantly related to the SCRT's decision to accept or refuse youths to secure care. At the SCRT level, there does not appear to be a pattern of decisionmaking based on either social or legal variables. Decisions at this level may thus be viewed as idiosyncratic. A glossary of selected terms and offense ratings are appended. Tabular data and about 140 references are provided. (Author summary modified)