Juvenile Court Intake Practices and Reoffending: Pilot Study Protocol and Court Characteristics

• In Event: Risk Screening, Intake Decision-making and Reoffending in Juvenile Courts: Findings from a Rural State

Abstract

In the Mississippi, youth court intake officers can make one of three recommendations for initial case handling: Diversion: take no action, child be warned, counseled & release), parents warned or counseled; Informal handling: juvenile probation officers monitor the youth or family informally, voluntary agreement lasting 3 to 6 months; and Formal handling: refer to prosecutor for formal proceedings, that is, to file a petition and take case to adjudication hearing. The goal of the pilot study is to determine if use of recidivism risk screening at youth court intake to inform initial case handling decisions lowers recidivism for juveniles who are diverted from further juvenile justice processing. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the pilot study protocol, including the recruitment of county youth courts. Youth courts in Mississippi vary in population density, caseloads, and in county socioeconomic characteristics, factors that previous research found to influence intake decisions. The knowledge to be gained from this research, especially the use of risk and reoffending data for guiding juvenile justice policies and practices, can be applied to other jurisdictions across the country that do not use recidivism risk screening at the front end of the system to guide case handling.

Authors

• Angela A. Robertson, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University

• Sheena K. Gardner, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University