University Team Analyzes Juvenile Resilience and Recidivism Over Three Years

Rosemary Bannan, a DePaul University sociology professor, along with a team of sociology students, have spent the past four years evaluating a mediation program established by the Center for Conflict Resolution through the Juvenile Court of Cook County to find alternative measures to prosecution of juvenile delinquents. The DePaul research team’s recently released study found the mediation component of the Balanced and Restorative Justice Program to be a successful deterrent to recidivism, as 69 percent of juveniles tracked remained arrest-free after three years.

A random sample of 386 juvenile offenders – 45 percent of all juvenile cases during 1999 – were tracked for study, which aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mediation as a way to discourage further criminal activity or recidivism. For the most part, the program offered mediation to first-time offender youths referred to the center by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. However, according to Bannan’s report, the group to which mediation was offered included youths with prior offense records and youths who had committed mostly non-violent crimes. Even so, the first year after their arrests (2000), 61 percent of those studied remained arrest-free, as compared with 35 percent of those who did not complete mediation.

“In a mediation session, the offending youth meets face to face with the victim along with a mediator to discuss the case,” explained Bannan. “It encourages accountability because once the parties discuss how they want to resolve the matter, they sign an agreement.”

Several variables, including gender, seriousness of crimes, number of offenses, race and age were considered in evaluating the outcomes of the program. When it came to race, the differences in mediation rates were not statistically significant due to a leveling process apparent among all racial groups, according to Bannan. “All racial groups showed over 50 percent resilience in their arrest-free status and re-arrest rates,” she said.

Other conclusions of the three-year study include:

Mediation worked best for youths 16 and 17 years old and for those with no prior arrest record.

Hispanic youth mediates had the highest arrest-free rate among all racial groups at 67 percent.

Female mediates remained as arrest-free as their male counterparts.

After three years, non-mediate youth offenders’ arrest-free status rose to just six percentage points (63 percent) below that of the mediated youth.

According to Bannan, mediation is one of more than 20 promising programs offered by the Cook County Juvenile Court for the purpose of reducing recidivism rates. “Mediation offers a balanced approach to problem solving,” said Bannan. “It responds holistically to the needs of offenders, victims of their crimes and the communities in which victims and offenders live.”