Interventions to Reduce Recidivism Rates among Juvenile Offenders

This paper will review epidemiologic literature on interventions that contribute favorably to reducing rates of recidivism among juvenile offenders. In this context, the exposures are the various interventions and treatment modalities that may be used in an attempt to prevent recidivism; the disease (outcome) is recidivism. Recidivism is defined as "the tendency to relapse into a previously undesirable type of behavior, especially crime." For the purpose of this review, "juvenile offender" includes boys and girls aged 12-21 who can be classified as juvenile delinquents and/or who have committed at least one violent crime; the juvenile offenders in the studies reviewed may or may not be incarcerated. This review does not include juvenile sex offenders