Police Initiated Diversion for Youth to Prevent Future Delinquent Behavior: A Campbell Collaboration Systematic Review

• In Event: Evidence-Based Crime Policy II

Abstract

Police diversion schemes are police-specific practices that represent an alternative form of juvenile justice system processing of a youthful offender. Police diversion can involve different formats and can either be formal or informal. Four existing models of police diversion are traditional cautioning, caution plus, restorative cautioning, and final warning and reprimands. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized the findings from randomized experiments and high quality quasi-experiments that examined the effectiveness in reducing future delinquent behavior of these approaches relative to traditional juvenile justice processing.

Authors

• David B. Wilson, George Mason University

• Iain Brennan, University of Hull

• Ajima Olaghere, George Mason University

• Catherine S. Kimbrell, George Mason University