Impact of Institutional Placement on the Recidivism of Delinquent Youth in New York City, 2000-2003 (ICPSR 20347)
Version Date: Aug 10, 2009 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Jeffrey Lin, New York University
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR20347.v2
Version V2
Summary View help for Summary
The primary research goal of this study was to explore the effects of juvenile incarceration on future recidivism using social and legal history data about adjudicated juvenile delinquents in New York City. The secondary research goal of this study was to explore family court decision-making and the nature of family court processing. Study subjects were chosen by examining Family Court calendars in all five New York City boroughs for each day in April, May, and June of 2000, which identified every youth who received a disposition during this period. Research staff located case files for each subject in probation department file rooms in the five family courts, using personal and numeric identifiers taken from court calendars. Using a standardized data collection instrument that was developed by the research team, coded information was derived for 698 total cases by examining documents in each subject's probation case file. Coded data from probation case files offered a baseline portrait of this sample of delinquent youth. In order to measure recidivism, the principal investigator linked baseline records, using personal and numeric identifiers, to arrest and incarceration information provided by other city and state agencies. In this dataset, each record is essentially a snapshot of a particular youth at the time of his or her disposition. Variables about the sampled youth include: demographic profile, case processing, legal history, characteristics of present and past family environments, school performance indicators, community and peer relationships, history of alcohol and drug use, mental health history, and history of victimization.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
ZIP code
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
While discussions abound about the utility of incarceration for adult offenders, the effect of juvenile incarceration on subsequent criminal trajectories is less well-explored. The primary research goal of this study was to explore the effects of juvenile incarceration on future recidivism using social and legal history data about adjudicated juvenile delinquents in New York City. Principally, the study compared the recidivism patterns of youth who received different types of dispositions (i.e., institutional placement versus probation and other community-based sentences) while controlling for social background and legal history variables, thus answering the most fundamental question about how juvenile incarceration affects subsequent reoffending, as well as assessing the utility of incarceration for youth with different personal, social, and legal profiles. The secondary research goal of this study was to explore family court decision-making and the nature of family court processing. Furthermore, this study attempted to identify factors associated with discretionary court actions such as dispositional recommendations made by juvenile probation officers, and judges' ultimate dispositional decisions.
Study Design View help for Study Design
Study subjects were chosen by examining Family Court calendars, in all five New York City boroughs for each day in April, May, and June of 2000, which identified every youth who received a disposition during this period. Research staff located case files for each subject in probation department file rooms in the five family courts by using personal and numeric identifiers taken from court calendars. Using a standardized data collection instrument that was developed by the research team, coded information was derived for 698 total cases by examining documents in each subject's probation case file.
Data coders were given extensive training by senior research staff at the Vera Institute in order to promote coding consistency. Principally, this training was made up of a series of meetings in which senior research staff tutored data coders on the intricacies of family court processing, and helped to resolve potentially confusing issues related to interpreting court documents. These meetings also served to familiarize data collectors with the form and function of the data collection instrument.
During the course of data collection, researchers implemented a number of additional measures to ensure coding accuracy and consistency. At least one senior staff member was present at all times. Coded data for each and every study subject was double-checked by senior staff. Immediately after a file was coded, the senior staff member would review responses with the data coder to identify potentially conflicting or ambiguous information, and appropriately adjust responses. Moreover, the research team held regular meetings with data coders during the data collection process to establish consistent coding guidelines and resolve issues related to data collection. Data coders were also rotated periodically throughout the five New York City borough family courts as a further guard against coding bias. Lastly, collected demographic and legal information (i.e., detention and placement data) was crosschecked in other state and local administrative databases.
Sample View help for Sample
Study subjects were chosen by examining Family Court calendars, in all five New York City boroughs for each day in April, May, and June of 2000, which identified every youth who received a disposition during this period. A total of 837 juvenile delinquents were identified, however case files were located for 736 subjects, yielding an overall location rate of 88 percent. A total of 38 cases in the dataset did not have a matching New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) incarceration record. As a result, the principal investigator was unable to determine accurately time spent incarcerated and in the community for these subjects, and chose to exclude them from multivariate analyses. The final dataset thus contains 698 total cases.
Universe View help for Universe
All juvenile delinquency cases processed in the New York City Family Court in April, May, and June of 2000.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
Data were obtained from official case files in the New York City Family Court system. The main sources of information in the paper case files were:
- Probation Investigation and Recommendation (I and R) reports
- Probation Intake reports
- Mental Health reports (MHRs)
- Juvenile Intensive Supervision Program (JISP) assessments
- School records
- Court petitions
- New York Police Department (NYPD) arrest reports
Arrest and incarceration information was provided by the following city and state agencies:
- The New York City Criminal Justice Agency (CJA) provided data on subsequent arrests (juvenile and adult) in New York State.
- The New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), which oversees all state juvenile placement facilities, provided data on juvenile re-incarceration.
- The New York City Department of Juvenile Justice provided data on pre-trial detention in juvenile incarceral facilities.
- The New York City Department of Correction (DOC) provided data on adult incarcerations for those study subjects who "aged out" of the juvenile justice system during the follow-up period.
United States Bureau of the Census' American Factfinder available at Census 2000 Summary File 3.
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
In this dataset, each record is essentially a snapshot of a particular youth at the time of his or her disposition. Variables reflect the following characteristics of sampled youth:
- Demographic profile (e.g., sex, race, and ZIP code)
- Case processing variables (e.g. disposition date, length of disposition, type of current offense, and 6-, 12-, and 18-month dichotomous rearrest variables)
- Legal history (e.g., prior arrests and institutional placements)
- Characteristics of present and past family environments (e.g., guardians, abuse/neglect history, and nature of relationships between family members)
- School performance indicators (e.g., attendance, academic performance, conduct at school)
- Community and peer relationships (e.g., negative peers, gang involvement, and participation in organized activities)
- History of alcohol and drug use
- Mental health history
- History of victimization (e.g., bullying, sexual abuse, and property offenses against respondent)
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
none
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2008-01-30
Version History View help for Version History
- Lin, Jeffrey. Impact of Institutional Placement on the Recidivism of Delinquent Youth in New York City, 2000-2003. ICPSR20347-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-08-12. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR20347.v2
2009-08-10 ICPSR edited the Restrictions field to reflect that the study was changed from being partially restricted to completely restricted.
2008-09-30 ICPSR recoded the LG "GANG AFFILIATED?" variable per the request of the principal investigator. The value of 0 was recoded to 1 and the value of 1 was recoded to 0. ICPSR also declared the value of -7 "Blank" in the FARRAGE "AGE AT FIRST ARREST" variable as missing.
2008-01-30 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.