Goldstein Naomi E S, Kreimer Rena, Guo Siying, Le TuQuynh, Cole Lindsey M, NeMoyer Amanda, Burke Stephanie, Kikuchi George, Thomas Kevin, Zhang Fengqing
Department of Psychology, Drexel University.
Philadelphia Police Department.
Law Hum Behav. 2021 Apr;45(2):165-178. doi: 10.1037/lhb0000440.
Created to combat the school-to-prison pipeline, the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program offers voluntary community-based services to eligible youth accused of minor school-based offeses in lieu of arrest. This study evaluated program effectiveness in accomplishing goals related to reductions in school-based arrests, serious behavioral incidents, and recidivism.
We expected the annual number of school-based arrests in Philadelphia schools to decrease over the program's first 5 years and predicted that the annual number of serious behavioral incidents would not increase. Further, we expected that diverted youth-compared to youth arrested in schools the year before Diversion Program implementation-would have significantly lower rates of recidivism arrests in the 2 years following their school-based incidents.
Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined data from 2,302 public school students (67.0% male; 76.1% Black; age range: 10-22 years) who were either diverted from arrest through the Diversion Program or arrested in Philadelphia schools in the year prior to Diversion Program implementation. We compared rate of recidivism arrest, number of arrests, and time to arrest between diverted and arrested youth. We also used district-wide descriptive statistics to examine 5-year trends in school-based arrests and serious behavioral incidents.
Since program implementation, the annual number of school-based arrests in Philadelphia has declined by 84% and the number of serious behavioral incidents has declined by 34%. Diverted youth demonstrated less recidivism than arrested youth in the 2 years following their initial incident; however, after propensity score matching, we no longer observed significant differences.
Findings indicate that a prearrest diversion program can safely reduce school-based arrests and suggest a need for future research regarding the role of demographic and incident-related characteristics in recidivism outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
费城警方学校转移计划旨在应对从学校到监狱的通道问题，为被指控犯有轻微校内罪行的符合条件的青少年提供基于社区的自愿服务，以替代逮捕。本研究评估了该计划在实现与减少校内逮捕、严重行为事件和再犯相关目标方面的有效性。
我们预计在该计划实施的前5年，费城学校的年度校内逮捕数量会减少，并预测严重行为事件的年度数量不会增加。此外，我们预计与转移计划实施前一年在学校被捕的青少年相比，被转移的青少年在其校内事件发生后的两年内再犯逮捕率会显著降低。
采用准实验设计，我们研究了2302名公立学校学生（67.0%为男性；76.1%为黑人；年龄范围：10 - 22岁）的数据，这些学生要么通过转移计划免于逮捕，要么在转移计划实施前一年在费城学校被捕。我们比较了被转移和被捕青少年的再犯逮捕率、逮捕次数和逮捕时间。我们还使用了全学区的描述性统计数据来研究校内逮捕和严重行为事件的5年趋势。
自该计划实施以来，费城的年度校内逮捕数量下降了84%，严重行为事件数量下降了34%。在初次事件发生后的两年里，被转移的青少年比被捕的青少年表现出更少的再犯情况；然而，在倾向得分匹配后，我们不再观察到显著差异。
研究结果表明，逮捕前转移计划可以安全地减少校内逮捕，并表明未来需要研究人口统计学和与事件相关的特征在再犯结果中的作用。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2021美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
