Indicator: Youth Success After Leaving Juvenile Justice System

Priority or Priorities:  ACES/Resiliency
Initiative(s): Communities for Children and Youth: Mentoring for children and youth through college/community partnerships, Re-Entry Program
Outcome (s): Families recognizing the rewards and responsibilities of raising children

Why This is Important

Families, young people, and the professionals and volunteers who work in the juvenile justice system all hope that young people who enter that system do not become repeat offenders (recidivists). Committing a repeat offense increases the odds that youth will also experience other negative outcomes and injure the quality of life in their community.

Where We Stand

The definition used to determine the recidivism rate for the Maine Department of Corrections Juvenile Services was “any individual recording a second adjudication date in the state of Maine’s juvenile court system for offenses committed before the age of 18”. The percentage of youth who were re-adjudicated within one year of their first offense was about the same for each of the six youth cohorts (20% for youth first adjudicated in 1998; 20% for those first adjudicated in 1999; 19% for those first adjudicated in 2000, 17% for those first adjudicated in 2001, 19% for those first adjudicated in 2002, 17% for those first adjudicated in 2003, and 18% for those first adjudicated in 2004). At three years, recidivism rates are consistent across the four cohorts with available data.

The 1998-2004 MDOC reports on youth recidivism also provide other basic information on youth who were first adjudicated in those years. In 2004, 77% of juveniles adjudicated were male, 75% were between the ages of 15-17, and 94% were white. The number of first time female offenders almost doubled between 1998 and 2004, reaching a high of 335 in 2004, representing an increase of 36% from 2003. The number of younger first time offenders (10-13 years old) continues to decline substantially. The number of first time offenders aged 13 and under has been cut in half from 1998 to 2004. With the exception of 2003, there has been slight decrease (7%) since 2001 in the number of 15-17 year olds adjudicated for the first time. Surprisingly, 2004 saw a significant increase in 18 year old first time offenders. (Maine DOC Annual Juvenile Recidivism Report, 2007)

Data Source and Context

The data comes from the 2002-2003 Recidivism Report, the latest in a series of juvenile recidivism reports developed by the Maine Statistical Analysis Center at the Muskie School of Public Service for MDOC Division of Juvenile Services. The report provides a detailed profile of juvenile offenders and adjudicated crimes in Maine between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2003. The Juvenile Recidivism Reports are available on-line at: http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/justiceresearch/Recidivism2004.2.htm.