Bouchard Jessica, Wong Jennifer S
Jessica Bouchard School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada.
J Youth Adolesc. 2017 Jul;46(7):1472-1487. doi: 10.1007/s10964-017-0667-7. Epub 2017 Apr 1.
Juvenile delinquency has been on the decline for a number of years, yet, juvenile courts continue to assess more than 1 million cases per year. Involvement with the juvenile justice system has been linked to a number of risk factors and consequences that may impact positive youth development; however, evidence-based correctional programs that divert juvenile offenders away from formal processing are limited. Teen Court is a specialized diversion intervention that offers an alternative to traditional court processing for juvenile offenders. Despite the rapid expansion of Teen Courts, there is little comprehensive and systematic evidence available to justify this expansion. This meta-analytic study examines the effects of Teen Court on the recidivism of juvenile offenders. The literature search resulted in the selection of 14 studies, which contributed 18 unique effect sizes with a total sample of 2125 treatment group and 979 comparison group youth. The findings suggest that Teen Court is no more effective at reducing recidivism than (a) formal processing or (b) other diversion programs. Implications of formal and informal court processing for low-risk, first-time young offenders are discussed. The authors draw on the Risk-Need-Responsivity model to provide recommendations for policies and practices.
青少年犯罪率多年来一直在下降，然而，少年法庭每年仍要审理超过100万起案件。与少年司法系统的接触与一些可能影响青少年积极发展的风险因素和后果有关；然而，能使少年罪犯避免正式程序的循证矫正项目却很有限。青少年法庭是一种专门的分流干预措施，为少年罪犯提供了一种替代传统法庭程序的选择。尽管青少年法庭迅速扩张，但几乎没有全面系统的证据来证明这种扩张的合理性。这项荟萃分析研究考察了青少年法庭对少年罪犯再犯率的影响。文献检索结果筛选出14项研究，这些研究提供了18个独立的效应量，治疗组共有2125名青少年，对照组有979名青少年。研究结果表明，青少年法庭在降低再犯率方面并不比（a）正式程序或（b）其他分流项目更有效。讨论了正式和非正式法庭程序对低风险、初犯的年轻罪犯的影响。作者借鉴风险-需求-反应性模型为政策和实践提供建议。
