Doctoral Dissertation Research: Under the radar or under arrest: How does contact with the juvenile justice system impact delinquency and academic achievement?

由于每年有200多万青年被捕，了解与少年司法系统的接触如何影响发展至关重要。 虽然先前的研究发现，与系统的接触-通常以逮捕或出庭来衡量-可能与不希望的结果有关（例如，高中辍学、成人失业、成人犯罪）、方法限制（例如，有偏抽样，使用现有的回顾性小组和横截面数据集）在以前的研究中，这些结果的解释是暂时的。 此外，先前的研究尚未证明这种接触如何或为什么会导致不良后果，以及接触的影响是否随发育而变化。 虽然违法的青少年通常由少年司法系统处理，但许多从事同样非法行为的青少年却没有被执法部门发现。 因此，这项研究的基础上，在以前的研究中招募和比较两组类似的犯罪青年的局限性：（1）青少年司法系统处理的青年;（2）逃避执法的青年。 特别是，这项研究跟踪这些青年6个月，并调查：（1）是否接触，事实上，与随后的犯罪和学业成绩;（2）是否接触是更有害的年轻青年相比，年长的青年;和（3）这种接触是如何与随后的犯罪和学业成绩。这项研究的数据可用于针对两个潜在的变化点：少年犯和为他们服务的司法系统。 这样做，这些数据有可能为公共政策提供信息，这些政策可能会使有风险的青年远离少年司法系统的旋转门。

With over two million youth arrested annually, it is critical to understand how contact with the juvenile justice system impacts development. Though prior studies have found that contact with the system - typically measured as an arrest or a court appearance - might be related to undesirable outcomes (e.g., high school dropout, adult unemployment, adult crime), methodological limitations (e.g., biased sampling, the use of existing retrospective panel and cross-sectional datasets) in prior studies render the interpretations of these findings tentative. Furthermore, prior studies have yet to demonstrate how or why this contact precedes undesirable outcomes and whether the impact of contact varies developmentally. Although youth who violate the law are typically processed by the juvenile justice system, many youth who engage in the same illegal behaviors go undetected by law enforcement. As such, this study builds on the limitations in prior studies by recruiting and comparing two groups of similarly delinquent youth: (1) youth who are processed by the juvenile justice system; and (2) youth who evade law enforcement. In particular, this study follows these youth for 6 months and investigates: (1) whether contact is, in fact, related to subsequent delinquency and academic achievement; (2) whether contact is more detrimental for younger youth compared with older youth; and (3) how this contact is related to subsequent delinquency and academic outcomes. Data from this study can be used to target two potential loci for change: the juvenile offenders and the justice systems that serve them. In so doing, these data have the potential to inform public policies that might deflect at-risk youth from the revolving door of the juvenile justice system.