1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This study aimed to assess the effect of juvenile justice system processing under the Canadian Young Offenders’ Act.» (p. 291)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The 401 participants whose data were used in this study came from an original sample of 1,037 boys recruited from schools located in low-socioeconomic areas of Montreal (Canada), in 1984 […] The current study focused on two groups of participants, the ‘exposed’ group, who were brought to juvenile court between ages 12 and 17, and the ‘potential control’ group, who were arrested by the police during the same age period, but were never brought to court. Of the 1,037 boys from the original sample, 176 (17%) had at least one juvenile court appearance and formed the ‘exposed’ group. […] The ‘potential control’ group included 225 participants who reported having ‘been arrested and taken to the police station’ at least once between ages 12 and 17, but were never brought to court.» (p. 292)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«This study is the first propensity score matching evaluation of the juvenile justice system’s effects into adulthood. It contributes to knowledge about the overall effectiveness of juvenile court interventions as they are implemented in ‘real world’ conditions […]. Our results indicate that they fail to prevent adult criminal involvement and may instead increase the likelihood of violent and nonviolent crimes, thus increasing suffering, and raising justice, health, and social costs […].» (p. 296) Afin de dresser le ‘score de propension des participants les auteurs utilisent plusieurs variables relatives à la famille: l’âge de la mère lorsqu’elle a eu son premier enfant, le niveau d’éducation parentale, le revenu des parents, le statut marital et la présence ou non d’accusation pour un crime commis par un parent. Ces données permettent aux chercheurs d’établir le score de propension afin de mesurer la probabilité des participants à commettre des crimes. Par exemple, des données révèlent que la présence de parents accusés d’un crime ou divorcés augmente les chances que l’adolescent commette des délits criminels.