Assessing the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency: An Evaluation of a Court‐Based Delinquency Prevention Program

• Author: Michael Norris,Jacqueline Bergdahl,Matthew Ream,Sarah Twill
• Date: 01 October 2015
• Published date: 01 October 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12177

ASSESSING THE PREVENTION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY:

AN EVALUATION OF A COURT-BASED DELINQUENCY

PREVENTION PROGRAM

Jacqueline Bergdahl, Sarah Twill, Michael Norris, and Matthew Ream

In 2002, the State of Ohio mandated juvenile courts to provide prevention for at-risk youth. This study examined official court

records to evaluate the effectiveness of a prevention program administered by the Greene County Juvenile Court. A sample of

362 youth referred to the program for the years 2002 to 2009 by concerned caretakers, teachers, and police was analyzed. Con-

sistent with intake goals, 81.7% of clients were referred for at-risk but not actually delinquent behaviors. Completion of the

prevention program did not predict future court referrals, but neither did seriousness of referral behavior. Children with two

biological parents were significantly more likely to complete the program, whereas referrals to Strengthening Families Program

and substance abuse screening significantly predicted program noncompletion. Implications for policy and research are

discussed.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

This article highlights efforts by county juvenile court to implement a secondary prevention program for at-risk but not

officially court-referred youth.

Delinquency prevention research depends on good juvenile court data and adequate comparison groups.

Evidence-based predelinquent interventions with external process and outcome evaluations should be the standard.

Keywords: At-Risk Juveniles; Caretaker and School Referrals; Delinquency Prevention; Juvenile Court; and State-

Mandated Prevention.

INTRODUCTION

In an effort to reduce juvenile delinquency, preventive programs began to emerge soon after

the creation of the first juvenile court in Cook County, Illinois, in 1899 (Scott & Grisso, 1997).

The Chicago Area Project emphasized cultivating conventional behavior in at-risk youth for sev-

eral decades after its creation in 1932, and the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study offered pre-

ventive treatment from 1942 to 1976 (McCord, McCord, & Zola, 1959; Lundman, 2001). In

1961, the President’s Commission on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime recognized the

need for deinstitutionalization of status offenders and community-based programs, which led to

the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 and establishment of the Office of

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Funding became available for implement-

ing and evaluating prevention and diversion programs, and despite a regression toward “get

tough” juvenile policies in the 1990s (Howitt, Moore, & Gaulier, 1998), delinquency prevention

programs continue to be popular (Mihalic, Irwin, Fagan, Ballard, & Elliott, 2004; Bartollas &

Schmalleger, 2013).

This article discusses the nature of state-mandated, predelinquent prevention and then describes

and evaluates a prevention program provided by a county juvenile court in Ohio. We examined offi-

cial court records for 362 youth referred to the program by not only law enforcement but also con-

cerned caretakers and school officials between 2002 and 2009. We present sample demographics and

Correspondence: Jacqueline.Bergdahl@wright.edu; Sarah.Twill@wright.edu; Michael.Norris@wright.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 53 No. 4, October 2015 617–631

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C2015 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts