Juvenile Risk and Need Assessment: Predictive Validity for Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice System-Involved Youth

• In Event: The Role of Risk and Protective Factors in Juvenile Justice

Abstract

Standardized juvenile risks and needs assessments (JNRA) are implemented in juvenile courts to inform case management and disposition based on the youth’s calculated risk for future delinquency and treatment needs. Yet, through child maltreatment and child welfare system involvement are robust predictors of delinquency, they are rarely considered in JRNA tools. Further, predictive validity of standardized JRNA tools among child welfare and juvenile justice system-involved (dual system) youth is immensely under-researched. Utilizing administrative data from a sample of 1,664 juveniles on probation in a mid-size Midwestern county-level family court, this study seeks to examine the predictive validity of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS) for dual system (DS) youth. Results from the study inform the opportunity for unique adaptations to the YLS designed to identify the risks and needs of DS youth and effectively predict recidivism.

Authors

• Alyssa LaBerge, Michigan State University

• Caitlin Cavanagh, Michigan State University