Using Diversion: The Contextual and Individual Level Predictors of Civil Citation

• In Event: Police Contact and School- and Community-Based Court Referrals for Juvenile First-Time Offenders

Abstract

Juvenile justice systems across the country have made a concentrated effort in recent years to move from traditional sanctions towards more preventative or rehabilitative options for delinquent youths, most notably in the form of diversion programs. The theory behind this trend being that juveniles engaging in minor forms of delinquency are more likely to benefit from less contact with the juvenile justice system, rather than more. In 2011, Florida instituted a statewide initiative encouraging all counties in the state to implement a pre-arrest diversion program for juveniles known as civil citation. Thus far, the initiative has been implemented with varying levels of success. Using data provided by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, this study examines what factors predict the use of civil citation across the state, both in terms of contextual influences across counties, and the individual characteristics that make a juvenile more likely to receive this form of diversion within each county.

Authors

• William D Bales, Florida State University

• Melissa Nadel, Florida State University

• George Pesta, Florida State University

• Mark Andrew Greenwald, Florida State University