Functional Family Therapy for Gang Populations (FFT-G): A Randomized Controlled Trial

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Gang membership facilitates increased involvement in violence and serious delinquency. It is therefore important to identify effective programs to reduce the level of gang membership and the impact of gang membership on antisocial behaviors. Few gang-specific prevention and intervention programs have been demonstrated in rigorous research to be effective for reducing violence, delinquency, and drug use. However, several non-gang-specific programs (e.g., those identified by the Blueprints for Violence Prevention project) have been shown in rigorous research to reduce these problems. Researchers at the University of Maryland and Temple University are partnering with the Philadelphia Family Court to implement and rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of a “gang-enhanced” version of Functional Family Therapy (FFT), a Blueprint model program often used by juvenile court systems. The study will determine whether the modified program, FFT-G, is effective in reducing gang membership and delinquency among high risk youth, many of whom are active gang members. This panel provides an overview of the project and describes the characteristics of the families randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. It describes the FFT-G intervention and presents implementation and cost data for both the treatment and control services.

Sub Unit

• Area IX: Juvenile Crime and the Justice System / 59: Juvenile Justice Policies and Practices

Individual Presentations

• Functional Family Therapy for Gang Populations (FFT-G): Overview - Brook Kearley, University of Maryland; Deanna Devlin, University of Maryland

• The FFT-G Intervention - Michael S. Robbins, FFT, LLC; Helen M. Midouhas, FFT, LLC

• Implementation Fidelity in the FFT-G Intervention - Molly Slothower, University of Maryland

• Program Costs in the FFT-G Intervention - Denise C. Gottfredson, University of Maryland; Jamie J. Fader, Temple University

Chair

• Denise C. Gottfredson, University of Maryland