Protective factors and recidivism in Latino juvenile offenders

As currently more than half of youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system will re-offend, improvement in intervention and prevention programs designed to prevent recidivism in juvenile offenders is clearly needed. Research has identified a number of risk factors that are associated with increasing the risk of delinquency as well as the risk of recidivism in general populations of youth. However, little is known about which factors are the most salient in predicting the absence of recidivism in this high-risk group of youth. Additionally, although several studies suggest that youth from minority groups are at the greatest risk of recidivism, few studies have examined the influence of risk and protective factors in these populations. Latino adolescents represent the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, and are also unfortunately overrepresented in all levels of the juvenile justice system. By gaining a greater understanding of the protective factors involved in the lives of Latino youth who do not re-offend, professionals and policy makers can design interventions and programs to enhance these factors and decrease the prevalence of recidivism. The present study examines the predictive ability of protective factors on recidivism in Latino juvenile offenders. A longitudinal design is utilized to answer the following research questions: (a) Do caring relationships, high expectations, meaningful participation, social competence, autonomy and sense of self, or sense of meaning and purpose predict recidivism above and beyond that predicted by problem behaviors? (b) Does the total number of present protective factors predict recidivism above and beyond that predicted by problem behaviors, and is an increase in the number of protective factors related to a decrease in the likelihood of recidivism? Results indicated some support for the predictive power of caring relationships, high expectations, and social competence for recidivism in this population. These results suggest an importance of both internal factors (i.e., social competence), as well as factors existing in the youth's environment (i.e., caring relationships and high expectations) for the prediction of recidivism.