Although research has
oft-documented a maltreatment-delinquency link, the effect of involvement
in-and timing of-child welfare system involvement on offending has received
less attention. We examine whether the timing of child welfare involvement has
differential effects on recidivism of deep-end juvenile offenders (youth who
have been adjudicated delinquent by the court and placed in juvenile justice
residential programs).
The current study uses a large, diverse sample of 12,955
youth completing juvenile justice residential programs between 1 January 2010
and 30 June 2013 in Florida (13 % female, 55 % Black, 11 %
Hispanic). Additionally, we explore the direct effects of childhood traumatic
events on delinquency, as well as their indirect effects through child welfare
involvement using structural equation modeling.
The findings indicate that
adverse childhood experiences fail to exert a direct effect on recidivism, but
do exhibit a significant indirect effect on recidivism through child welfare
involvement, which is itself associated with recidivism. This means that while
having exposures to more types of childhood traumatic events does not, in and
of itself, increase the likelihood of re-offending, effects of such experiences
operate through child welfare placement.
Differences in the effects of
maltreatment timing and of adverse childhood experiences are observed across
sex and race/ethnicity subgroups. Across all racial subgroups, exposures to
adverse childhood experiences have a significant effect on the likelihood of
child welfare placement, yet child welfare placement exerts a significant
effect on recidivism for White and Hispanic youth, but not for Black youth.
Only Hispanic female and White male youth with overlapping child welfare and
juvenile justice cases (open cases in both systems at the same time during the
study period) were more likely to recidivate than their delinquent-only counterpart
youth.
Crossover status (child welfare and juvenile justice involvement,
whether prior or open cases) was essentially irrelevant with respect to the
re-offending of Black youth completing juvenile justice residential programs.
The findings indicate the effects of exposure to adverse childhood experiences,
and child welfare system and juvenile justice system involvement on
re-offending are not uniform across subgroups of youth but that earlier child
welfare involvement is more detrimental than concurrent child welfare system
involvement when it does matter.
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By: Baglivio MT1, Wolff KT2, Piquero AR3, Bilchik S4, Jackowski K5, Greenwald MA6, Epps N7.
- 1G4S Youth Services, LLC, 6302 Benjamin Rd., Suite 400, Tampa, FL, 33625, USA. Michael.Baglivio@us.g4s.com.
- 2John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 West 59th St., New York, NY, 10019, USA. kwolff@jjay.cuny.edu.
- 3University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Rd., GR31, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA. apiquero@utdallas.edu.
- 4Center for Juvenile Justice Reform, 3300 Whitehaven St. NW, R. 5045, Washington, DC, 20007, USA. Shay.bilchik@gmail.com.
- 5G4S Youth Services, LLC, 6302 Benjamin Rd., Suite 400, Tampa, FL, 33625, USA. Katherine.Jackowski@us.g4s.com.
- 6Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, 2737 Centerview Drive, Tallahassee, FL, 32399, USA. Mark.Greenwald@djj.state.fl.us.
- 7Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, 2737 Centerview Drive, Tallahassee, FL, 32399, USA. Nathan.Epps@djj.state.fl.us.
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