Evaluating YLS Assessment Scores in Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice

• In Event: The (Mis)Use of Risk Assessments in Juvenile Justice Decision-making

Abstract

In 2010, the Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice System stakeholders initiated a statewide roll out of the Youth Level of Service (YLS) risk assessment instrument. Building on prior analysis that examined the relationship with individual-level demographic data and YLS domain and overall risk level scores, the current research evaluated the relationship between being a child offender, serious offender, violent offender and/or chronic offender with each of the YLS domain scores, in addition to their overall risk level. Initial YLS assessments completed for juveniles with a case open in a Pennsylvania juvenile probation department during the years 2010-2014 inclusively (N = 41,640) were included in the study.

Authors

• Kelly Waltman Spreha, Juvenile Court Judges' Commission

• Justine Fowler, Juvenile Court Judges' Commission