Juvenile Justice Risk Factors and Functional Family Therapy Fidelity on Felony Recidivism

Families (n = 5,884) received Functional Family Therapy (FFT) provided as part of court-ordered probation services by 11 community sites throughout Florida. Sites provided home-based FFT to families with male (72%) or female (28%) delinquent youth. Juvenile justice courts referred clients to these s...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Turner, Charles W. (Author) ; Blankenship, Julia L. (Author) ; Robbins, Michael S. (Author) ; Weaver, Lisa R. (Author) ; Winokur Early, Kristin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2019
In: Criminal justice and behavior
Year: 2019, Volume: 46, Issue: 5, Pages: 697-717
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Families (n = 5,884) received Functional Family Therapy (FFT) provided as part of court-ordered probation services by 11 community sites throughout Florida. Sites provided home-based FFT to families with male (72%) or female (28%) delinquent youth. Juvenile justice courts referred clients to these services in an effort to redirect them away from incarceration. Clients were Hispanic (18%), Black (41%), and White non-Hispanic (36%), while therapists (female, 79%) were of Hispanic (28%), Black (20%), and White non-Hispanic (50%) ethnic/racial origins. Analyses of clients’ pretreatment recidivism risk and therapist’s caseload of risky clients demonstrated that both individual and treatment site case-mix of client criminal risk levels were associated with higher adjudicated felony recidivism. Furthermore, clinical process indicators suggest that therapists with larger rather than smaller caseloads of high-risk clients provided treatment with greater fidelity. Results suggest that experience in working with challenging clients is critical for achieving fidelity with these cases.
ISSN:1552-3594
DOI:10.1177/0093854818813184