Abstracts on Juveniles
What they don’t know can hurt them: Mothers’ legal knowledge and youth re-offending.
For Whom Does Deterrence Affect Behavior? Identifying Key Individual Differences.
A meta-analysis update on the effects of early family/parent training programs on antisocial behavior and delinquency
What they don’t know can hurt them: Mothers’ legal knowledge and youth re-offending.
Elizabeth Cauffman, University of California, Irvine
Juvenile offenders may be too young to manage the terms of their probation independently; a parent’s participation in the probationary process is critical for youths’ successful transition to crime desistence. However, a parent’s capacity for support during his or her child’s legal process may depend on the parent’s knowledge of how the justice system operates. The present study is the first to quantify mothers’ knowledge of the juvenile justice system. The authors examine the association between mothers’ legal knowledge, legal participation, and youth re-offending using a longitudinal sample of 324 dyads (total N = 648) of mothers and their sons, all first-time juvenile offenders. Results indicate that mothers averaged a 66% out of 100% on a test of legal knowledge. Importantly, those mothers who knew the least about the system also participated the least in their son’s legal process, and mothers who participated the least had sons who self-reported re-offending more within the first year after his arrest. Practitioners are encouraged to educate parents of juvenile offenders about their rights and responsibilities in the courtroom and on probation, to create meaningful avenues for parental involvement, and to set youth up for success after a first arrest.
For Whom Does Deterrence Affect Behavior? Identifying Key Individual Differences.
Adam Fine, University of California, Irvine
Deterrence threats are essential mechanisms for affecting behavior, yet they are often ineffective. The literature is beginning to consider individual differences underlying differential susceptibility to deterrence. The present study sampled 223 adults from Amazon Mechanical Turk and used an experimental cheating paradigm to examine the role of 3 individual differences, including morality, self-control, and rule orientation, underlying differential susceptibility to deterrence. The results indicate that deterrence threats may be more influential for people who have low moral disengagement, who possess more self-control, or who are more rule oriented. These findings indicate that important individual differences underlie susceptibility to deterrence.
A meta-analysis update on the effects of early family/parent training programs on antisocial behavior and delinquency
Alex R. Piquero, University of Texas at Dallas
To update Piquero et al.’s meta-analysis on early family/parent training programs. Screening of eligible studies was carried out for the period between January 2008 and August 2015. An additional 23 studies were identified, which were added to the original database of 55 studies, totaling an overall sample of 78 eligible studies. A random-effects model was used to obtain an overall mean effect size estimate. Additional analyses were performed to assess publication bias and moderation. An overall average, positive, and significant effect size of 0.37 was calculated, which corresponds to 32 out of 100 in a treated group versus 50 out of 100 in a control group who offended. There was some evidence of publication bias and moderation. Early family/parent training programs are an effective evidence-based strategy for preventing antisocial behavior and delinquency