Citation

Sullivan CJ, Latessa E. Youth Violence Juv. Justice 2011; 9(3): 191-206.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1541204010393754

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In recent decades, states and communities have begun to utilize diversion programs as a means of preventing the unnecessary penetration of youth into the juvenile justice system and redirecting limited resources. Many of these diversion programs revolve around formal community-based programming. The authors utilize a large sample of youth (n = 4,325) nested in justice and treatment-related programs (n = 72) in order to jointly investigate the likelihood of recidivism based on youth risk and program characteristics. The analysis indicates that individual risk has a substantial effect on later recidivism, which is relatively constant across different programs. Programs do vary in their overall levels of recidivism. Measures of program type and integrity show few significant effects, however. Discussion of the results focuses on the general utility of such policies and the importance of considering the interaction between youth and programs in the production of key outcomes.