Foster Care Beyond Placement: Offending Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood

• In Event: Key Findings from the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study: Offending in Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

There is a specific need to better describe and understand patterns of offending among youth at the ‘deep end’ of the justice system. From a theoretical perspective, foster care placement is considered a particularly important risk factor for serious and violent offending. However, very little theorizing and research has been attuned to the mechanisms by which continued offending into adulthood is more likely. Although desistance from offending is expected during the transition between adolescence and emerging adulthood, children and youth in care (CYIC) typically experience an abrupt loss of financial and social resources as they enter this developmental stage which may further diminish their opportunities to desist. Using data on the first cohort of youth from the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study, the current study examined whether CYIC (n = 211) were disproportionately more likely than non-CYIC (n = 153) to continue offending at a high rate during adulthood. Dynamic classification tables were used to examine patterns of persistence and desistance between adolescence and emerging adulthood. Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that CYIC were associated with a more concerning pattern of offending. Results are discussed with attention to emerging adulthood-specific needs of CYIC.

Authors

• Jennifer Yang, Simon Fraser University

• Evan McCuish, Simon Fraser University

• Raymond Corrado, Simon Fraser University