:1Juurut.lr QJxutrt .af ,.alIt Qrnuuty .~ .J - National Criminal Justice ...

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the part of juveniles referred by their parents. However_ the total
number is too small to be significant A
The figures in Table IX do reflect a trend that one might have
anticipated _ Those ",ho were recidivists or did not c omp lete the program
have a higher percentage of Court referrals tha~
those classified
as successes. On the basis of this infcrmation~ it appears that those
who did not complete the program were initially "worse off" than either
of the other two groups with 38.9% having four or more Court referrals.
These data would indicate that the YGP is of greatest potential benefit
to the'youth who has never had previous contact with Juvenile Court.
This can be further illustrated by Table X which shows the
'success rate according to whether the youth entered the program at
the point of intake or at the request of a probation officer.
(Placement
by a PO \'/ou Id indicate in most cases that the youth has already
gone through the process of a Court hearing.)
As can be seen, the
greatest percentage of successes are placed by the Intake Department
which would be the point of minimal Court involvement.
It is interesting
that a total of 37.2% of the "failures" were placed by probation
officers with half of the non-completions also being in this group.
At
least three possible explanations are suggested by these data:
1. Those who fail in the YGP have already established a pattern
of failure as indicated by' their Jt.lvenile Court records;
2. Those who have had a Court hearing and/or have been on active
probation don ot have the "fear" of offi cial Court action to
deter them; or,
3. The program gives probation officers a chance for intensive
supervision of selected cases which allows them to get to
know a probationer better than through the normal supervisory
process. On the negative side, this may call to the attention
of the PO attitudes and behaviors that might otherl'lise go unchecked.
(Conversely, of course, it is hoped that such intensive
sunervision would foster a more individualized treatment
plan.) ~