Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice

Prior research has established that having a low future orientation is associated with offending. Additionally, it has been found that being exposed to adverse childhood events such as physical abuse may lower one’s future orientation and increase one’s offending likelihood. One gap in this line of research concerns the potential mediating role of future orientation on the relationship between trauma and offending. The current study fills this gap in the literature using a sample of adjudicated delinquents from a large southern state. The results from the study partially support the hypotheses; while future orientation lowers the likelihood of offending and trauma exposure increases offending likelihood, future orientation does not appear to mediate the relationship between trauma exposure and crime. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Polyvictimization refers to multiple forms of victimization experienced by youths. The extent to which aggregated or cumulative early life victimization increases risk of victimization within juvenile correctional facilities is unclear. Furthermore, pathways from early polyvictimization to facility victimization may be partly explained by trauma symptomatology. Drawing upon the extant polyvictimization literature, this study explores both composite and cumulative effects of childhood victimization on later victimization within correctional facilities and the mediating role of trauma symptomatology among a nationally representative sample of incarcerated youth. Data were drawn from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement. Incarcerated youths (N = 7,073) were surveyed on constructs including early victimization, trauma symptomatology, and experiences of victimization within correctional facilities. Using appropriate weights in analyses, structural equation models revealed the relationship between amassed early polyvictimization and composite facility victimization was partially explained by trauma symptoms; facility victimization also linked to trauma symptoms. Additional models revealed that as youths report more victimization experiences, there was a successive increased likelihood for trauma symptoms, facility robbery, and facility physical victimization. The relationships between cumulative early victimization and facility robbery, physical, and sexual victimization were partially or fully mediated by trauma symptoms. Research and practice implications are discussed.

During adolescence, many teens begin to experiment with substances and engage in delinquent behavior. The current study seeks to examine whether and to what extent genetic and environmental factors contribute to the association between substance use (i.e., marijuana and alcohol) and different forms of delinquent offending (i.e., violent and nonviolent) across males and females. Analyses were based on same-sex twins (N = 1,072) from the sibling subsample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The results revealed moderate to large genetic overlap between substance use and delinquent behavior for males. Much of the covariation between alcohol use and offending behavior for females was attributable to common environmental factors, while common genetic factors explained a large portion of the overlap between marijuana use and offending in males and females. The implications of these findings for sex differences in prevention and intervention efforts are discussed from a biosocial perspective.

This study examined the relationship between known risk factors for youthful offenders and rates of recidivism using Poisson regression models. The sample consisted of 564 male and female juvenile offenders referred to the Juvenile Court Assessment Center (JCAC) by the Juvenile Justice Division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Miami-Dade County. First, data from a clinical interview and the administration of the Wide Range Achievement Test were factor analyzed. Six factors were found to be statistically significant based on a parallel analyses. Neighborhood factors explained the largest amount of variance followed by peer influence, family functioning, gang involvement, substance use, and academic achievement. These six domains were analyzed in separate Poisson regression models. Family-wise error rate was controlled with Bonferroni adjustments. Each model predicting number of arrests from academic performance, substance use, peer influence, gang involvement, and neighborhood factors were statistically significant. The final model including all variables across the six domains indicated good fit, χ²(14) = 201.260, p < .001. Implications stemming from these findings are discussed.

The study examined the risk and protective factors for the successful completion of probation orders among youth offenders in Singapore. Specifically, we proposed a typology whereby a predictor can be labeled as a promotive factor, hazard factor, or mixed factor in a direct relationship; or a booster factor or buffering factor in an interactive relationship. This study included 701 youth offenders. Retrospective case file coding was conducted to score the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) and Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence Risk–Youth Version (SAPROF-YV). Most SAPROF factors were shown to be mixed protective factors, whereas most YLS/CMI domains were either mixed risk factors or hazard factors. An absence of a supportive external pedagogical climate (PC) was the strongest mixed factor. For youth with high PC, significant booster factors included high levels of attitudes toward agreements and conditions, motivation for treatment, perseverance, and bonding to school/work, as well as low levels of risk in peer relations and education/employment. For youth with limited PC, buffering factors with the strongest effects include self-control, future orientation, and school/work. Implications for practice and future research were discussed.