Risk factors for juvenile criminal recidivism - The postrelease community adjustment of juvenile offenders

This study focused on the outcomes of juvenile delinquents (N = 140) follow ing their conviction, commitment for residential placement, and return to t he community on parole. Participants were followed for a period of 1 year p ostrelease. A random stratified sampling procedure was used to select parti cipants from urban, suburban, and rural sites. Ratings of poor parole adjus tment (73%), as well as observed rates of parole violation (73%) and reoffe nding (40%) across the entire sample reflected a substantial proportion of unfavorable outcomes during follow-up. Stepwise regression yielded signific ant predictive capacity for offense, school, and family variables toward pa role violation (R =.30) and parole adjustment (R =.41), and a trend toward significance in the prediction of reoffending (R =.31), although the modest size of these coefficients would limit practical utility. The results are discussed in the context of intervention and risk-reduction planning throug hout residential placement and postrelease community living.