Department of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Dev Psychopathol. 2021 May;33(2):700-713. doi: 10.1017/S095457942000200X.
The current study advances past research by studying the impact of juvenile justice decision making with a geographically and ethnically diverse sample (N = 1,216) of adolescent boys (ages 13-17 years) for the 5 years following their first arrest. Importantly, all youth in the study were arrested for an eligible offense of moderate severity (e.g., assault, theft) to evaluate whether the initial decision to formally (i.e., sentenced before a judge) or informally (i.e., diverted to community service) process the youth led to differences in outcomes. The current study also advanced past research by using a statistical approach that controlled for a host of potential preexisting vulnerabilities that could influence both the processing decision and the youth's outcomes. Our findings indicated that youth who were formally processed during adolescence were more likely to be re-arrested, more likely to be incarcerated, engaged in more violence, reported a greater affiliation with delinquent peers, reported lower school enrollment, were less likely to graduate high school within 5 years, reported less ability to suppress aggression, and had lower perceptions of opportunities than informally processed youth. Importantly, these findings were not moderated by the age of the youth at his first arrest or his race and ethnicity. These results have important implications for juvenile justice policy by indicating that formally processing youth not only is costly, but it can reduce public safety and reduce the adolescent's later potential contributions to society.
本研究通过对具有地理和种族多样性的青少年男孩（年龄 13-17 岁）的少年司法决策影响进行研究，推进了过去的研究（N=1216）。在他们首次被捕后的 5 年内，对所有参与研究的青少年进行了评估，这些青少年因中度严重的犯罪（例如殴打、盗窃）被捕，以评估最初的正式处理（即由法官判决）或非正式处理（即转介到社区服务）决策是否会导致结果的差异。本研究还通过使用一种统计方法来控制可能影响处理决策和青少年结果的许多潜在预先存在的脆弱性，从而推进了过去的研究。我们的研究结果表明，在青少年时期被正式处理的青少年更有可能再次被捕，更有可能被监禁，参与更多的暴力行为，与犯罪同伴的联系更紧密，报告的入学率更低，更不可能在 5 年内高中毕业，报告的抑制攻击性的能力更低，对机会的看法也更低，而不是非正式处理的青少年。重要的是，这些发现不受青少年第一次被捕时的年龄或种族和族裔的影响。这些结果对少年司法政策具有重要意义，表明正式处理青少年不仅代价高昂，而且会降低公共安全并降低青少年日后对社会的潜在贡献。
