The Prevention of Violent Behavior by Chronic and Serious Male Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

Over the past several decades, an increasing number of youth have been incarcerated for violent offenses. Existing interventions for serious offenders target the prevention of subsequent delinquent behavior in general, rather than the prevention of violent behavior in particular. Within the context of a randomized clinical trial of 79 adolescent males involved in the juvenile justice system, we examine the ability of multidimensional treatment foster care (MTFC) to prevent subsequent violent offending relative to services-as-usual group home care (GC). Data on offending were collected every 6 months for a 2-year period following entry into the study. The method of generalized estimating equations was used to analyze the data. Results indicate that MTFC youth were significantly less likely to commit violent offenses than youth placed in services-as-usual group care. The group effect held even after control variables, including age at placement, age at first arrest, official and self-reported prior offenses, and time since baseline,were introduced into the model. Twenty-four percent of GC youth had two or more criminal referrals for violent offenses in the 2 years following baseline versus only 5% of MTFC youth. The rates of self-reported violent offending for MTFC youth were in the normative range following baseline, whereas rates for GC youth were 4 to 9 times higher. MTFC youth were also significantly less likely to report incidents of common violence, such as hitting.