The Serious and Violent Juvenile Offender:
What Are the Risk Factors and Successful Interventions?
A Forum — March 19, 1998
Serious and violent juvenile offenders (SVJ offenders) are responsible for a disproportionate percentage of all crimes and pose a great challenge to juvenile justice policy makers. To address this issue, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of Justice, convened the Study Group on Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders comprised of 22 researchers. The Study Group worked collaboratively over two years to document what is known about SVJ offenders and conducted a comprehensive synthesis and meta-analysis of the available literature--over 200 studies including research on risk and protective factors. The Study Group also analyzed numerous prevention and intervention programs, resulting in a report describing how different prevention and intervention programs work--what's been tried, what lessons can be drawn from them, and what research and evaluation efforts are needed. The final product of the Study Group is a report made available through OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse, as well as a book Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Successful Interventions.
Who Are Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders?
SVJ offenders: (1) have committed serious violent offenses--homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault or kidnaping; (2) have committed serious nonviolent offenses--burglary, motor vehicle theft, theft of more than $100, arson, drug trafficking or extortion; and/or (3) are chronic offenders with four or more referrals to juvenile court. Rolf Loeber, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Epidemiology at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and co-chair of the Study Group, describes three myths regarding SVJ offenders: (1) offending emerges suddenly, (2) single risk factors explain SVJ behavior, (3) once a crime is committed, there is no solution other than locking a young person up. On the contrary, the Study Group found that (1) SVJ offenders emerge over a long period of time, traceable to early ages, (2) risk factors leading to delinquency are multiple and accumulate over time, and (3) it is never too late to intervene.
The SVJ offender is substantially different from the typical juvenile involved in delinquent conduct. The majority of SVJ offenders display earlier minor behavior problems that lead to more serious delinquent acts which continue longer than non-SVJ offenders. Half of offenders classifiable as SVJ offenders emerge by the time they are 12 years old; 85 percent by the time they are 14. The average age of a SVJ's first documented "index" offense is 14.5, yet the Study Group found that young offenders and their parents typically reported that offending began 7 years earlier. Problem behavior manifests at an early age in four specific ways: (1) persistent disobedience, (2) overt confrontational acts, (3) covert acts or 4) a combination of all three. SVJ offenders also tend to have multiple problems such as substance abuse and mental health difficulties in addition to school problems such as truancy, suspension, expulsion, and dropping out.
What Tools Should Be in Our Tool Box?
Nancy G. Guerra, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, one of the Study Group members, indicates that the best strategies found to prevent and intervene with SVJ offenders:
- were comprehensive and community-wide, emphasizing prevention and remediation
- were developmental (taking into account physical, social and mental developmental stages) and assisted youth in mastering tasks, such as attachment, before moving on to next level tasks
- involved multiple contexts (families, peers, schools, communities, workplaces) emphasizing bonding and connectedness as early as infancy
- involved multiple components (skills, opportunities, reinforcement of appropriate behavior and sanctions)
- specifically targeted risk factors, with different approaches for different risk factors
The Study Group also found that implementation quality is critical. In general, programs work best when they are well-staffed, carefully implemented and monitored, matched to client needs, long lasting, well-established in a setting, and consistent with other programs.
Likening effective practices to "tools in a tool box," Guerra cautions that sometimes the components of programs should be examined and evaluated rather than the programs themselves: "programs are not magic bullets and the same elements will not work in every situation." For example, programs emphasizing job skills are less effective in communities lacking available jobs and working on developmental tasks alone will not effect the availability of guns which the Study Group found to be an influencing factor in community crime rates.
Guerra concludes that specific strategies are very important to prevent or intervene with SVJ offenders including: an emphasis on moral thinking, teaching differences between right and wrong, enhancing cognitive development and training in interpersonal skills. Moreover, to prevent SVJ offenders it is important to identify risk factors and behaviors early without labeling or stigmatizing young people; to have a range of prevention/intervention mechanisms ready; to have comprehensive responses across systems; to conduct more evaluation on what works for SVJ offenders; and to focus on what works when, where, why and for whom.
Policy and Research Implications
David P. Farrington, Ph.D, Professor of Psychological Criminology at the Institute of Crimi-nology, University of Cambridge, England and co-chair of the Study Group, suggests that: risk assessment tools be improved to identify who will become an SVJ offender; prevention and intervention begin at age 12 or earlier when predictive behaviors begin to manifest themselves; greater coordination is needed between youth-serving systems including child welfare, juvenile justice and mental health agencies; a mandate for prevention be developed; evaluation--of SVJ offenders, cost-effectiveness, multiple risk factors, protective factors, best points for intervention--be increased and include longitudinal data. Finally, Farrington reiterates that contrary to current thought it is never too early to initiate prevention and never too late to intervene.
This information is from an American Youth Policy Forum/Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention co-sponsored event held on March 19, 1998 at the U.S. Department of Justice, reported by Donna Walker James.