Collaborative Research: Adolescent Development, Legal Comprehension, and Decision-Making Among Justice-Involved Youth

合作研究：青少年发展、法律理解和参​​与司法的青少年的决策

• 批准号: 2146965
• 负责人: Craig Schwalbe
• 金额: $ 36.07万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2146965&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Adolescent; Development; Legal

Reforming the juvenile justice system along developmental principles is an urgent priority for many states and local jurisdictions. Over 700,000 adolescents have contact with the juvenile justice system every year, with a majority referred to community supervision via juvenile probation. Adolescents on probation encounter systems of rules, obligations, and conditions that place them in daily jeopardy of non-compliance and failure. Youth who are non-compliant are more likely to have continued involvement in the juvenile justice system, institutional placement, and chronic involvement with the criminal justice system as adults. There is emerging evidence to suggest that non-compliance rates are higher when adolescents have an incomplete understanding of the rules and conditions imposed on them. The current study has two aims. The first is to explore, more fully, the relationship between comprehension and compliance and whether it differs based on individual perceptions and experiences. The second is to test whether comprehension can be enhanced and whether improved comprehension improves outcomes with regards to court orders and probation conditions. This study examines the developmental conditions under which adolescent understanding of the rules and conditions of their probation orders is associated with short-term and long-term positive and negative probation outcomes. It does this through an experimental test of the “condition comprehension interview” in a sample of adolescents on probation (N = 200). The interview was adapted from teach-back interventions in medicine and nursing to strengthen treatment adherence. It aims to strengthen three aspects of adolescent understanding that are expected to influence adolescent behavioral outcomes: the specificity of their knowledge about probation rules and conditions, reasoning about rewards and consequences for compliance and non-compliance, and appreciation for the relevance of their rules and conditions for their long-term goals and ambitions. The research will test the hypothesis that adolescent comprehension of their probation rules and conditions in these three dimensions will make legal decisions in their day-to-day lives that are aligned with their rules and conditions. Along with the direct effects of condition comprehension, the study will explore the roles of three dimensions of adolescent development that are hypothesized to influence the salience of their understanding on probation outcomes: legal socialization and legal cynicism, socio-emotional development, and identity development. Outcomes of the study include 3-month and 12-month legal outcomes reported in probation case files, parental report of adolescent behavioral outcomes during the first three months of their probation term, and adolescent daily self-report of their compliance and rule following conducted within the first 3 months of their probation term. Overall, this study will provide practical guidance and strategies to juvenile justice agencies to strengthen adolescent behavioral outcomes, will help these agencies tune their approaches according to the developmental needs of adolescents they serve, and extend theories of legal comprehension and legal decision making to the field of juvenile justice with a particular emphasis on the post-adjudication phase of justice processing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

沿着发展原则改革少年司法制度是许多州和地方司法机构的一项紧迫优先事项。每年有700 000多名青少年与少年司法系统接触，其中大多数通过少年缓刑被移交社区监督。处于缓刑期的青少年会遇到各种规则、义务和条件，使他们每天都处于不遵守和失败的危险之中。不遵守规定的青少年更有可能继续参与少年司法系统，机构安置，并作为成年人长期参与刑事司法系统。有新的证据表明，当青少年对强加给他们的规则和条件不完全理解时，不遵守的比率会更高。目前的研究有两个目的。第一个是更全面地探讨理解和遵守之间的关系，以及它是否因个人的看法和经验而有所不同。第二个是测试是否可以提高理解能力，以及提高理解能力是否会改善法庭命令和缓刑条件的结果。本研究探讨的发展条件下，青少年的理解，他们的缓刑令的规则和条件与短期和长期的积极和消极的缓刑结果。它这样做是通过一个实验测试的“条件理解面试”在试用期的青少年样本（N = 200）。访谈改编自医学和护理中的反馈干预措施，以加强治疗依从性。它旨在加强青少年理解的三个方面，预计将影响青少年的行为结果：他们对缓刑规则和条件的知识的特异性，对遵守和不遵守的奖励和后果的推理，以及对他们的规则和条件的相关性的赞赏他们的长期目标和抱负。本研究将检验一个假设，即青少年对缓刑规则和条件在这三个维度上的理解，将使他们在日常生活中做出符合其规则和条件的法律的决定。沿着条件理解的直接影响，本研究将探讨青少年发展的三个维度的作用，这些维度被假设为影响他们对缓刑结果的理解的显著性：法律的社会化和法律的愤世嫉俗，社会情感发展和身份发展。研究的结果包括3个月和12个月的法律的成果报告的缓刑案件档案，青少年的行为结果在前三个月的试用期的父母报告，青少年每天自我报告他们的遵守和规则以下进行的前3个月的试用期。总的来说，这项研究将为少年司法机构提供切实可行的指导和战略，以加强青少年的行为结果，将帮助这些机构调整他们的方法，根据他们所服务的青少年的发展需要，并将法律的理解和法律的决策理论扩展到少年司法领域，特别强调少年司法的后该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。