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Treating offending children: What works?
Author(s) -
Nee Claire,
Ellis Tom
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
legal and criminological psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 2044-8333
pISSN - 1355-3259
DOI - 10.1348/135532504x15330
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , psychology , psychological intervention , juvenile delinquency , juvenile , clinical psychology , suicide prevention , injury prevention , poison control , psychiatry , medicine , environmental health , genetics , biology
Purpose. There is little evidence on the effectiveness of interventions with offending children and juveniles, either in Europe or North America. We present the evaluation findings of an innovative intervention and relate these to the existing evidence base for young offenders and to the more extensive literature on older offenders. Methods. Using an established risk predictor, The Level of Service Inventory–Revised (LSI‐R; Andrews & Bonta, 1995), we measured the criminogenic risks and needs of the intervention group and a non‐intervention group of child and juvenile offenders at 6‐monthly intervals. Local police charges data were also collected for both groups as an indicator of offending behaviour. Results. Over the first 30 months of the project, a statistically significant drop was seen in the LSI‐R scores of the project participants, with favourable effect sizes. Effect sizes improved markedly with longer‐term intervention. There were also strong indications that the level of offending behaviour had decreased during the intervention. The comparison group showed no change in risks, needs or offending rate. Conclusions. We suggest this study provides an important contribution to the evidence base of what works with child and juvenile offenders and we suggest that an increased focus on understanding effective intervention with very young offenders is required.