Examining the Relationship Between Family Involvement in the Juvenile Justice Process and Recidivism

Abstract

Recently within the juvenile justice system there has been a great deal of attention toward increasing family involvement, with the goal of enhancing the quality of service-delivery for youth active with the justice system and their families, and ultimately achieving better overall outcomes. Many states are adopting new initiatives and policies to improve the involvement and engagement of family members in decision-making, treatment, supervision and overall case management. To date, however, there is little published empirical evidence that demonstrates whether or how such involvement will translate into greater success, increased compliance with treatment and conditions, goal attainment, reduced length of stay/time on supervision, and ultimately lower recidivism rates, for youth active with the juvenile justice system. Furthermore, there is a need to clearly define and operationalize “family involvement” within a juvenile justice context, which has not yet been clearly conceptualized or operationalized in the literature. While there are a few studies that examine family involvement with justice involved youth, these are generally limited to youth in out-of-home placement facilities. With the majority of youth remaining in the community during their involvement with the juvenile justice system, conducting research within a community-based setting is an integral part of understanding family involvement. The current study sought to provide an understanding of how best to measure and operationalize family involvement in a broader juvenile justice context. In addition to developing a working definition of, and framework for, family involvement, this dissertation examined whether or not family involvement influences recidivism. To examine the relationship between family involvement and recidivism from a community corrections lens, the current study used case record data from a random sample of 300 youth referred to the Dauphin County Pennsylvania Juvenile Probation Department in 2010. In Pennsylvania juvenile probation officers are involved with a case from referral to case closing; therefore, in addition to providing a community corrections setting, the juvenile probation department provides the opportunity to measure family involvement from case beginning to end. Employing a longitudinal cohort design, two years of retrospective data were collected for the 97 females and 203 males included in the study sample. Multivariate analyses were used to measure the relationship between various indicators of family involvement and youth outcomes. Findings show that family member presence at court hearings is a significant predictor of recidivism. Youth whose family members missed at least one court hearing were significantly more likely to have a violation of probation filed, to recidivate, and to have a shorter time to rearrest. Additionally, when exploring familial characteristics that may contribute to family involvement, risk assessment results and family member criminal justice history were significantly related to various family involvement measures. This research helps lay the conceptual and empirical foundation for understanding and testing the impact of family involvement, and its findings contribute to the knowledge of the role of family in the juvenile justice system. This dissertation also suggests new areas of research to assess the effects of family involvement on juvenile justice outcomes. These initial findings assist in understanding the nature and impact of such initiatives, and provide important feedback to policy makers and program officials as they continue to shape the role of a family involvement strategy in juvenile justice, with the primary goal of increasing overall youth success and reducing recidivism.