Using a Decision Matrix to Guide Juvenile Dispositions

• Author: Brian Lovins,Gina M. Vincent
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12112
• Published date: 01 February 2015
• Date: 01 February 2015

POLICY ESSAY

DISPOSITION MATRIX FOR COURT

RECOMMENDATIONS

Using a Decision Matrix to Guide Juvenile

Dispositions

WhereDoWeGoNext?

Gina M. Vincent

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Brian Lovins

Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department

Baglivio, Greenwald, and Russell’s (2015, this issue) research is strongly needed for

the justice field to design and test a structured decision-making (SDM) method

for dispositional decisions. The idea of a disposition matrix is not a novel concept,

but this is the first to be examined statistically for its association with later offending.

Many state juvenile justice agencies have adopted untested disposition grids (for example,

Massachusetts) or guidelines (for example, Washington) for sentencing in the interest of

increasing objectivity and fairness. These grids tend to be based entirely on the type of

offense for which the youth was adjudicated. Although these tools are a step in the right

direction for ensuring objectivity and reliability,they often lack validity. Evidence shows that

the severity of the offense for which one was convicted does not have a significant association

with whether that youth will be adjudicated for a serious offense in the future (Mulvey et al.,

2010). Indeed, Baglivio et al. (2015) report that 42% of their violent offenders were actually

assessed as low risk for reoffending, whereas less than 20% of the violent offenders were

high risk to reoffend (see Table 1 in Baglivio et al., 2015).

We believe the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice’s (FDJJ’s) disposition matrix

is the first step in the right direction to promoting disposition practices that are both

objective and valid while maintaining some level of judicial discretion by permitting a fairly

wide range of dispositions within each cell. We consider this as the “first step” because a

disposition matrix can only go so far in ensuring youth receive the interventions necessary

to protect public safety while reducing their future risk. Furthermore, as Baglivio et al.

Direct correspondence to Gina M. Vincent, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical

School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Chang Bldg., Worcester, MA 01655 (e-mail: gina.vincent@umassmed.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12112 C2015 American Society of Criminology 51

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 14 rIssue 1