Citation

Johnson CL, Wright KA, Strand PS. J. Juv. Justice 2012; 1(2): 34-51.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, In Public Domain (U.S. Department of Justice OJJDP), Publisher CSR)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

School dropout represents a major turning point in a person's life that could be seen as an initial step on a difficult pathway to reduced conventional opportunities. The challenge is to identify interventions that can successfully reintegrate students back into a school setting in a manner that encourages continued attendance and involvement. One such program is the West Valley Community Truancy Board in Spokane, Washington. In addition to the truancy board process, the program employs a court-appointed officer to mentor students and manage the overall process of identifying and attending to the risks and needs that promote truancy. Guided by Sampson and Laub's (1993) age-graded theory of informal social control and Cullen's (1994) application of social support to delinquency, the current analysis seeks to determine the overall effectiveness of the truancy board based on both quantitative analyses of outcomes and qualitative interviews with key actors. We discuss the implications for the ongoing theoretical, empirical, and policy debates surrounding truancy intervention.

Keywords: truancy, community truancy board, life-course theory, social support, truancy intervention, Juvenile justice

Language: en