NCJ Number
177910
Journal
Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling Volume: 19 Issue: 2 Dated: April 1999 Pages: 88-94
Date Published
1999
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article presents the methodology and findings of an evaluation of the Juvenile Counseling and Assessment Program (JCAP) of the Juvenile Court of Clarke County, Ga.
Abstract
JCAP objectives are to assist delinquent youth in dealing with the difficulties they face in their lives, to improve their social skills, to make them aware of their own and their community's resources, and to reduce the likelihood that they will become further involved in the legal system. The JCAP program uses a team approach in providing comprehensive psychological services to court-adjudicated youth through a multisystemic ecological perspective that uses the resources of the youth, family, school, and community. Counseling services are provided by master's level counselors-in-training supervised by doctoral level psychologists-in-training, who are supervised by University of Georgia faculty members who are licensed psychologists. It was impossible for the evaluation to use a controlled, experimental design because of certain restrictions of the setting; however, a comparison between the JCAP sample and a matched control group was allowed. The evaluation compared the recidivism pattern of a sample (n=55) of juvenile offenders who participated in JCAP with the recidivism of a sample of juvenile offenders from the same court system who received only regular probation services. Findings show that of those in the JCAP program, only 25 percent reoffended; whereas, 64 percent of the youths in the comparison sample reoffended. 1 table and 16 references