Assaultive Youth: An Exploratory Study of the Assaultive Experience and Assaultive Potential of California Youth Authority Wards

Abstract

All 1964-1965 California Youth Authority admissions to the Reception Guidance Center, Deuel Vocational Institution, form the study population for this research. A variety of data was utilized to explore relationships within the sample to simple recidivism on parole and to violent recidivism on parole in par ticular. Using a selection of relevant variables, three independent statistical approaches were carried out. They resulted in a linear predictive index and an effort to develop a prediction equation through a linear regression analysis. The methods employed and the results obtained are discussed.

The authors suggest that efforts to better classify and define violence should be coupled with efforts to develop assessment techniques that are specifically designed to shed light on violence- proneness in persons. Such research efforts should be continued in addition to or in conjunction with much needed research efforts aimed at modifying violence producing situations. Such a two- pronged research strategy would acknowledge the interactional characteristic of violence and allow for the hypothesis that both persons and their characteristics, and situations and their charac teristics, contribute to the occurrence or non-occurrence of violence.