New Research on Juvenile Interventions and Reoffending

I recently had the opportunity to watch a webinar on the latest research about how protective factors and strength-based services impact reoffending among justice-involved youth. The webinar focused on the second brief (Impacts on Long-Term Youth Reoffending) from the Youth Protective Factors Study (hereinafter the Study). The Study offers interesting findings related to the way risk and protective factors work (or, spoiler alert, don’t work) to reduce reoffending. This research can help practitioners focus limited resources on system responses and interventions most likely to promote public safety. The Study The two briefs released in the Study, Youth Reoffending: Prevalence and Predictive Risk Factors in Two States (hereinafter Brief 1)[1] and Protective Factors and Strength-Based Services: Impacts on Long-Term Youth Reoffending (hereinafter Brief 2),[2] include analysis of over 32,000 youth with a new juvenile justice system complaint (delinquency or a status offense) over three years. The research on risk factors included youth who had a risk assessment completed and the research on protective factors included youth who completed a protective factors survey designed for the Study. Reoffending was measured by tracking new juvenile petitions and adult charges during the time the youths were under supervision and for an average of 2.5 years after their supervision ended. Risk Factors that Impacted Recidivism Risk Assessment was Accurate Brief 1 offers a summary of study findings related to risk factors. The first key finding relates to the validity of the risk assessments used in the study states. The researchers found that the risk assessment instruments [...]