The Shifting Placements of Delinquent Youth: Assessing the Relationship of Reform to Risk, Record, and Sociodemographic Characteristics

• In Event: Implementing Evidence-Based Policy and Practice in Juvenile Justice: An Assessment of Varied Initiatives and Outcomes.

Abstract

Conventional wisdom and recent empirical research suggest that incarceration has a negative impact on youths’ long-term development. In response, some states have implemented initiatives to reduce placements in state facilities in favor of community-based alternatives. In Ohio, such efforts have been ongoing for several years and a shift in the make-up of the juvenile population in key placement categories is expected to follow. This study examines the relationship between placement outcomes and key characteristics of delinquent youth to determine the degree and nature of such shifts over time. We use a sample of youths referred to juvenile courts between 2008 and 2015 (N~5,000) who have encountered different levels of state and local placements and diversionary alternatives. With both descriptive analyses and multivariate modeling, we assess the distribution of placement types across risk level, offense type and seriousness, prior record, race/ethnicity, and gender. The results will be discussed in terms of their implications for local and state-level efforts toward juvenile justice reform and their impact on important policy questions (e.g., diversion, deinstutionalization, disproportionate minority contact).

Authors

• Insun Park, University of Cincinnati

• Christopher Sullivan, University of Cincinnati

• Bryan Holmes, University of Cincinnati

• Myrinda Schweitzer Smith, University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute