Citation

Cusick GR, Havlicek JR, Courtney ME. Am. J. Orthopsychiatry 2012; 82(1): 19-31.

Affiliation

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago Washington University in St. Louis University of Chicago.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, American Orthopsychiatric Association, Publisher Wiley Blackwell)

DOI

10.1111/j.1939-0025.2011.01136.x

PMID

22239390

Abstract

This study examines a sample of foster youth at the onset of the transition to adulthood and explores how social bonds are related to the risk of arrest during adulthood. Drawing from official arrest records, event history models are used to examine the time to arrest. Because individuals may be at risk for different types of crime, competing risk regression models are used to distinguish among arrests for drug-related, nonviolent, or violent crimes. Between the ages of 17-18 and 24, 46% of former foster youth experience an arrest. Arrests were evenly distributed across drug, nonviolent, and violent crimes columns. Although findings fail to support the significance of social bonds to interpersonal domains, bonds to employment and education are associated with a lower risk for arrest. Child welfare policy and practice implications for building connections and protections around foster youth are discussed.

Language: en