Recidivism in a Sample of Serious Adolescent Offenders

• NCJ Number: 253139
• Author(s): Robert Brame; Edward P. Mulvey; Carol A. Schubert; Alex R. Piquero
• Date Published: 2018
• Length: 21 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2008-IJ-CX-0023
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Award: Pathways to Desistance

Annotation

A broad research literature in criminology documents key aspects of how criminal offending develops and changes over the life span, and the current study contributes to this literature by showcasing methods that are useful for studying medium-term patterns of subsequent criminal justice system involvement among a sample of serious adolescent offenders making the transition to early adulthood.

Abstract

The study relied on 7 years of post-enrollment follow-up from the Pathways to Desistance Study. Each person in the study was adjudicated delinquent for or convicted of one or more relatively serious offenses during adolescence. Their local jurisdiction juvenile court petition records and their adult FBI arrest records were systematically searched. The study estimates the in-sample 7-year recidivism rates to be in the 75-80 percent range. The analysis also estimates recidivism rates among different demographic groups within the sample. The Pathways data suggest that recidivism rates of serious adolescent offenders are high and comparable to the rates estimated for other samples of serious offenders in the extant literature. The current analysis also shows a pattern of heightened recidivism risk during the earliest months and years of the follow-up period, followed by a steep decline. Extrapolated long-term recidivism rates are estimated to be on the order of 79-89 percent. (publisher abstract modified)