Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice

According to the minority threat perspective, racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system can be linked to the size of the minority population in the larger surrounding community. In the juvenile justice system, it is suggested that a larger minority population will be associated with greater punitive treatment, especially of minority defendants. While minority threat has received considerable attention in prior research, much of this work has focused on racial threat (i.e., Black/White). Few juvenile justice studies have tested the ethnic threat hypothesis, and no study has examined the influence of immigrant threat on juvenile court outcomes. To address this gap, the present study examines whether ethnic and immigrant threat at the county level are associated with more punitive juvenile court outcomes, and whether ethnic and immigrant threat amplify ethnic disparities in those outcomes. Findings offered limited support for the study hypotheses. First, ethnic and immigrant threat were both positively and significantly associated with odds of detention, but negatively associated with petition, and had no association with adjudication and disposition outcomes. Second, ethnic and immigrant threat did not moderate ethnic differences in juvenile court outcomes. The implications of the findings for theory, research, and policy are discussed.

This study investigates the potential causal relationship between the assignment of financial restitution penalties to juvenile offenders and subsequent recidivism, defined as being sentenced for a new offense within the next two years. Although the use of financial penalties on juveniles is prevalent, there is limited research on its potential link to reoffending. Using a dataset of all juvenile offenders in the state of Pennsylvania from 2015 to 2017 (n = 15,382), we implement a propensity-score matching model to estimate the effects of restitution assignment on future recidivism and test for endogeneity between the two using a control function model. Controlling for offender demographics, criminal history, and offense type and severity, we estimate that restitution assignment increases recidivism rates by 26-percentage points (p < 0.001) and do not find statistical evidence of endogeneity. Higher rates of recidivism are found for those assigned restitution across all offense grades, categories, and dispositions.

The Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), widely used to assess risk and protective factors among justice-involved youth, demonstrates predictive validity with regard to recidivism. At the individual level, the dynamic Individual/Clinical Risk Factor of the SAVRY has previously demonstrated consistent form across gender and race among Mississippi justice-involved youth. Little is known about the factor structure of the Individual/Clinical Risk Factor at the agency level. This study explored a two-level, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the Individual/Clinical Risk measure across 72 Mississippi judicial jurisdictions over a six-year period (2016–2021) involving n = 2,124 delinquent youth. Probit regression analysis examined the relationship of the CFA factor results to within-level and between-level covariates. Findings support the existence of a single factor of Individual/Clinical Risk across the vast majority (88%) of court jurisdictions. The results support the continued use of the SAVRY as an evidence-based measure of risk.