New article alert: The efficacy of juvenile court supervision

Dr. Cavanagh's latest article, The Efficacy of Juvenile Court Supervision in Addressing Youth Risks and Needs, is out now in Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.

Although success for youth on probation is often measured via recidivism, the goal of juvenile supervision practices is rehabilitation. Are youths’ risks and needs actually being addressed while under court supervision? And if so, for whom?

The good news: overall, risk/needs decreased significantly from court supervision entry to exit. That means the rehabilitative intervention the court is putting into place are successfully filling gaps for at-risk youth!

The bad news: that risk/needs reduction does not happen equally. Risk/needs were reduced significantly less for Black boys compared to white boys and Black girls. Since Black boys are overrepresented at every level of the juvenile justice system, it’s a big problem that their needs in particular aren’t being addressed!

Another interesting finding: more is not better. The more programs a youth was placed into and the longer they were on supervision, the LESS their risk/needs were reduced. Although it may sound counter-intuitive, this is in line with a ton of research on the iatrogenic nature of court over-involvement.

Researchers should move beyond recidivism as a measure of success on probation, and find other ways to measure whether rehabilitation is taking place.

Practitioners are encourage to implement culturally informed, individualized treatment planning for youth, and to remember that less is more in programming and time under supervision.