National Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2013 Mar;54(3):291-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02616.x. Epub 2012 Sep 26.
The juvenile justice system's interventions are expected to help reduce recidivism. However, previous studies suggest that official processing in juvenile court fails to reduce adolescents' criminal behavior in the following year. Longer term effects have not yet been investigated with a rigorous method. This study used propensity score matching to assess the impact of juvenile court processing into young adulthood.
Participants were part of a prospective longitudinal study of 1,037 boys from low- socioeconomic areas of Montreal, followed from ages 6-25 years. During their adolescence, 176 participants were processed in juvenile court, whereas 225 were arrested, but not sent to court. Propensity score matching was used to balance the group of participants exposed to juvenile court and the unexposed comparison group on 14 preadolescent child, family and peer characteristics. The two groups were compared on their official adult criminal outcomes.
The risk of conviction for an adult offence was 50.0% for court-processed participants compared with 24.3% for their matched counterparts, OR = 3.13, 95% CI = 1.80-5.44. Court-processed participants committed an average of 0.39 violent crimes, compared with 0.15 for their matched counterparts; Poisson model IRR = 2.60, 95% CI = 1.39-4.87. They also committed an average of 2.38 nonviolent crimes, compared to 1.30 for their matched counterparts, IRR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.19-2.93.
Rather than decreasing recidivism, juvenile court intervention increased both violent and nonviolent future crimes. Along with previous studies, this study highlights a pressing need for more research and knowledge transfer about effective interventions to reduce recidivism among youths who commit crime.
少年司法系统的干预措施有望帮助减少累犯。然而，先前的研究表明，少年法庭的正式处理未能减少青少年在接下来一年的犯罪行为。尚未使用严格的方法调查更长期的影响。本研究使用倾向评分匹配来评估少年法庭处理对青年期的影响。
参与者是一项前瞻性纵向研究的一部分，该研究涉及来自蒙特利尔低收入社会经济地区的 1037 名男孩，从 6 岁到 25 岁进行跟踪。在青少年时期，有 176 名参与者被少年法庭处理，而 225 名参与者被逮捕但未被送法院。使用倾向评分匹配来平衡暴露于少年法庭的参与者组和未暴露于对照组在 14 个青春期前儿童、家庭和同伴特征上的差异。比较两组在成年后官方犯罪结果上的差异。
被判犯有成人罪行的风险为 50.0％，对于被法庭处理的参与者，而他们的匹配对照组为 24.3％，OR = 3.13，95％CI = 1.80-5.44。被法庭处理的参与者平均犯下 0.39 次暴力犯罪，而他们的匹配对照组为 0.15 次；泊松模型 IRR = 2.60，95％CI = 1.39-4.87。他们还平均犯下 2.38 次非暴力犯罪，而他们的匹配对照组为 1.30 次，IRR = 1.87，95％CI = 1.19-2.93。
少年法庭的干预并没有减少累犯，反而增加了暴力和非暴力的未来犯罪。与先前的研究一样，本研究强调了迫切需要更多关于减少犯罪青少年累犯的有效干预措施的研究和知识转移。
