Subgroups of Persistent Juvenile Offenders: Latent Class Analysis of Repeated Juvenile Assessment Center Entries

ABSTRACT

Many juvenile justice agencies rely on risk assessments to inform administrative decisions about youth placement. While many studies within recent years have explored patterns in criminal offending over time, little research has explored the heterogeneity in youth placement decisions by the juvenile justice system. There is a need to document the patterns, levels, and trends in offense risk among youth entering and reentering the justice system. This study used latent class analysis to identify subgroups of n = 388 male juveniles repeatedly entering a U.S. juvenile justice system based on youth placement decisions. The persistent juvenile offenders were best classified into either a moderately increasing risk placement group or a severely increasing risk placement group. The moderately increasing group experienced more bullying involvement, while the severely increasing group was older and experienced more sexual assault, sexual partners, treatment for drug use problems, and elevated depression. Policy recommendations are made.

Acknowledgements

The research reported in this article was funded in part by Florida Department of Children and Families. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. We are grateful for the support of the Florida Department of Children and Families, and the Central Florida Behavioral Care Network.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Dembo

Richard Dembo, Ph.D. is a Professor of Criminology at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He is also an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow who has a long-term interest in developing, implementing, and evaluating intervention programs for at-risk and high-risk youth.

Jennifer Wareham

Jennifer Wareham, Ph.D. is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Her research focuses on understanding causes and correlates of juvenile delinquency, intimate partner violence, and program evaluation.

James Schmeidler

James Schmeidler, Ph.D. is a statistician who is a Voluntary Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City. He primarily collaborates in research on cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. He was a Research Scientist at the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, where he began his collaborative worked evaluating programs for justice-involved youth.