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Abstract
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Research Summary:
The Los Angeles County Repeat Offender Prevention Program (ROPP) was designed to improve school performance and prevent reoffending among the enrolled juvenile offenders through a milieu of social services. It was a 3-year pilot project established as part of a statewide juvenile correctional program funded by the California State Legislature, which commenced in 1999 and ended in 2001. A true experimental design was employed, and a total of 327 first-time juvenile probationers were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. At the end of the project, 204 subjects (106 in the treatment group and 98 in the control group) had a successful program termination. The data show that subjects in the treatment group were more likely to have better school performance than those in the control group. In the first 6-month period after program enrollment, they were also less likely to have new criminal offenses than their counterparts in the control group; however, no significant effect was found in any additional 6-month periods. Both groups were not significantly different in their probation technical violations. Policy Implications:
The study results suggest that intensive supervision and coordinated team efforts in providing probation services can markedly improve juvenile offenders' school-related performances and prevent new criminal offenses at the starting period. However, such an intervention model is unlikely to produce consistent and cost-effective justice system effects in the long run. Juveniles who fit the high-risk profiles do not necessarily become chronic offenders; future correctional interventions need to focus not only on individual level factors but also on the social context that gave rise to their problem behaviors in the first place.
KEYWORDS: Juvenile justice;
Language: en |