Page 29 - NCJA Journal_volume1_issue1-final

contributing to disparities by race/ethnicity. Three providers noted that they have a staff of color,

their staff/student ratio is balanced, or they have bi-lingual staff members – with one of those

adding that cultural competency is very important to their agency.

In conclusion, though the qualitative data did provide some context for the quantitative

findings, they were not able to explain outcome differences across the various providers.

Independent evaluations of each program provider are necessary to better understand the specific

impact of each program’s services and approach to juvenile recidivism outcomes.

Limitations

For this study of youth diversion, several limitations should be noted. First, analyses of

variance revealed that the three subsample populations – program completers, non-completers, and

rejected at screening – were similar in all basic demographics (age, sex, and education level) except

race/ethnicity. The program completers group was comprised of more youth who identified as

White/Caucasian or Latinx and contained fewer youth who identify as Black/African American, as

compared to the non-completers and rejected at screening groups. As a result, comparisons among

the three groups may be impacted by their different racial/ethnic compositions. Secondly, several

different interventions were used with the experimental group, some of which did not explicitly

target reduced recidivism as the desired outcome. The use of multiple interventions complicates

the evaluation, and as a result, further analyses are needed to specifically test each intervention

while controlling for other variables that may impact outcomes. Also, whereas the Youth Division

Program tracked numerous variables that could be analyzed for their impact on recidivism, entry of

those data was incomplete and insufficient for further and more sophisticated analyses. Fourth,

different components have been introduced into the program since its inception in 2013, which the

researchers were not able to control for in the analyses. For instance, the use of an intake

assessment form and quarterly check-ins with SROs were not introduced until three years into the

22