Divergent Pathways Among Youth with Status Offenses: Institutional Involvement and Outcomes in Young Adulthood

• In Event: Crime, Law and Deviance Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 11: Life Course Outcomes

Abstract

Introduction. Status offenses often bring young people into sustained contact with the juvenile justice system. However, most research treats youth with status offenses as a relatively homogeneous group, which may mask important differences in patterns of system involvement and later life outcomes. This study seeks to identify distinct subgroups of people with status offenses based on age at first admission, number of episodes, duration of supervision, custodial history, and type of status offense. We then examine how these subgroups are associated with demographic characteristics, employment outcomes, and involvement with the adult criminal justice system. Methods. We use administrative records from the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice to define an analytical population of individuals whose most serious adjudication was a status offense. Latent Class Analysis is employed to identify heterogeneity in patterns of juvenile justice (JJ) involvement, with sex included as a covariate in the class formation process to account for gender differences in system involvement. These data are then linked to administrative records from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections and Unemployment Insurance wage records to examine employment outcomes at ages 25 to 27 and adult criminal justice contact. Results. Our population consisted of 1,666 individuals. Three latent classes emerged: “Truancy and ungovernable with low JJ involvement” (74.1%), “Mostly ungovernable with higher JJ involvement” (19.4%), and “Runaway with moderate supervision” (6.5%). Descriptive analyses suggest that individuals in the “Runaway with moderate supervision” class are predominantly female and experience weaker labor market outcomes in young adulthood, as they are less likely to be employed and, when employed, earn lower wages than individuals in the other classes. We also find that individuals in the “Mostly ungovernable with higher JJ involvement” class have a slightly higher likelihood of later contact with adult corrections, although these differences are modest.

Authors

• Alejandra Leyton, University of Louisiana

• Inioluwa Oyetunji, UL Lafayette

• Stephen Barnes, UL Lafayette