This paper reports on a study with the primary goal of understanding whether the Young Adult Court improves life outcomes for young men by reducing recidivism and antisocial behavior, improving health and developmental/psychological outcomes, and/or promoting positive socio-economic and educational outcomes.
This document provides a project summary, discusses the research questions, and lays out the research design and methods of a randomized controlled trial that followed young men in a Young Adult Court (YAC) that specifically handles justice-system-involved young men, aged 18 to 25 years, in Orange County, California. The project had three research aims: to describe the perceived successes and challenges associated with involvement in San Francisco’s YAC among program graduates; to determine whether Orange County YAC participants differed from a randomized control group in their trajectories of criminal and antisocial behaviors, as well as other developmental and contextual outcomes during the two years following enrollment into the YAC; and to examine whether the Orange County YAC intervention impacts young minority adults across those outcomes and reduces unintentional effects on young adults of color of justice-system involvement. The goals of the YAC are to hold justice-involved young adults accountable in a developmentally appropriate way, reduce recidivism, and promote positive long-term outcomes. The paper also provides a discussion of the researchers’ activities and accomplishments, as well as a discussion of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the project, and an overview of their project results and findings.