Gender-responsive services in the juvenile justice system: Effectiveness of girls' group home interventions

The proportion of girls involved in the juvenile justice system has increased in recent years. This increase has prompted juvenile courts to develop more gender-specific services for young women entering the system to meet their unique needs as well as reduce recidivism. National statistics indicated that 21 percent of adjudicated females receive out-of-home placement as part of their treatment. The present study examined data from a mid-sized juvenile county court to determine the effects of the group home intervention for girls. The study compared group home girls to girls who did not receive group home treatment. Using two different propensity score matching (PSM) models, girls were compared on re-offense outcomes. The criminogenic risk level of girls was measured using the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) at intake and recidivism data were collected two years following release from the program. After employing the propensity score match models, mixed results were revealed. The first model revealed that the group home intervention significantly reduced recidivism rates for the treatment group two years following their program exit compared to similar girls who did not receive the intervention. This same effect was not found for the second propensity score model. The second model revealed that girls who received group home treatment did not significantly differ from the matched control in regard to recidivism within both one- and two-year follow-up periods. These findings have both substantive implications for gender-responsive programming and methodological implications for the use of propensity score matching for community-based program evaluation. Additional policy and practice implications for gender-responsive services as well as future directions for research are discussed.