Leisure Risk for Youth on Probation: How it Relates to Recidivism and How Probation Officers Address it in Case Planning

Proposal Summary: Engagement in primarily unstructured and unsupervised activities has been linked to increased misbehavior among young people, whereas engagement in positive youth development (PYD) activities (e.g., sports, community service) can lead to desired long-term outcomes. However, court orders for probation supervision of legally involved youth rarely include PYD activities, despite that this population of youth has an increased risk for ongoing delinquent behavior. In part, this disconnect may stem from an absence of research examining the link between engagement in PYD activities and future offending for youth on probation. As such, the purpose of the proposed project is to (1) examine whether a link exists between how youth on probation spend their leisure time and their subsequent legal outcomes and (2) identify how juvenile probation officers (JPOs) prioritize leisure-related risk/needs scores when creating a youth’s case plan—especially whether they provide PYD recommendations aimed at targeting risk in this domain. 

Primary Activities: To achieve the stated goals, I will first examine deidentified archival data of all youth referred to Pennsylvania juvenile courts in 2021 using the statewide Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Management System (PaJCMS). Specifically, I will use these data to examine whether YLS leisure/recreation risk scores were associated with subsequent court referrals within a 2-year follow-up period. Second, I will use a vignette-based experimental design to examine how JPOs prioritize and make recommendations for youth case plans based on varying YLS leisure/recreation risk/need scores, while keeping constant risk/needs scores in other YLS domains (e.g., education/employment, substance use) and overall risk score.  

Implications: Despite substantial research on YLS risk/need scores, recidivism risk, and JPOs’ decision making, this is the first study that will examine the link between probation-supervised youths’ YLS leisure/recreation domain scores and subsequent legal system involvement. Results could inform whether targeting this domain during probation supervision could result in meaningful decreases in recidivism. Moreover, given the well-established benefits of PYD programs, by determining whether JPOs prioritize the leisure/recreation domain and incorporate PYD opportunities into youths’ case plans—especially for youth whose YLS scores reflect challenges in the leisure/recreation domain—this study may expose a significant area for improvement in juvenile probation practice and policy. CA/NCF