The Principles of Effective Intervention for Juvenile Justice

South Dakota Juvenile Justice Summit

September 2017

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Crime and Justice Institute

•About CJI at CRJ• The Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) offers a team of experts

who provide nonpartisan consulting, policy analysis, and research services to improve public safety in communities throughout the country. CJI develops and promotes evidence-based practices that inform practitioners and policymakers, including corrections officials, police, courts, and political and community leaders, to assist them in making criminal and juvenile justice systems more efficient and cost-effective, and to promote accountability for achieving better results

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) Smart on Juvenile Justice Initiative

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Smart on Juvenile Justice Initiative

•OJJDP’s Smart on Juvenile Justice Initiative aims to assist states in implementing juvenile justice system reform

•The initiative seeks to• Embrace a community-based approach that limits out-of-

home placement• Promote evidence-based practices that follow a

developmentally appropriate approach• Assist states in maximizing cost savings and reinvesting

savings to support system change

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Smart on Juvenile Justice Initiative

• Statewide Reform Efforts • A Comprehensive Strategy to Juvenile Justice Reform in GA, HI, KY,

KS, SD, WV and UT• Statewide Juvenile Justice Reform Planning in DE, IA and WA• Assessing the Impact of Juvenile Justice Reforms in KY

• Technical Assistance to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System

• Community Supervision, Reducing Out-Of-Home Placement

• Juvenile Prosecution Curriculum Development, Training and Technical Assistance Program

• Enhancing Youth Access to Justice Initiative

• Age of Criminal Responsibility

Establishing the Principles of Effective Intervention

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What Works?

•Over 40 years of research consistently supports that recidivism reductions are achieved when adhering to the Principles of Effective Intervention

•This vast body of research has demonstrated that to be effective, models need to be implemented with fidelity and with a focus on individual differences of the clients they serve

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What Works!

•The foundation for what works in rehabilitating youth is adherence to the Principles of Effective Intervention (PEI)• Risk Principle – tells us WHO to target• Need Principle – tells us WHAT to target• Responsivity Principle – tells us HOW to effectively work

with youth• Fidelity Principle – tells us how to do this work RIGHT

•Even the best evidence-based program or practice must adhere to these principles to be effective

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PEI – Effective at what?

•Principles of Effective Intervention are specifically related to effectiveness of rehabilitative efforts

•Goal of rehabilitation = reduce likelihood of future delinquency

The Risk Principle

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Risk Principle

•The Risk Principle tells us who to target

•Risk assessments should be used to objectively and appropriately classify a youth’s risk

•The best way to assess youths’ risk factors is by using an actuarial assessment

•Target those youth with higher probability (higher risk) of recidivism

•We want to match levels of supervision, treatment, and services to the risk level of the youth• Dosage and intensity correspond with risk level

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Risk Principle

•High risk youth are more likely to recidivate and are more active when they do recidivate• Require the most intensive intervention (supervision and

treatment) for the appropriate dosage

• Low risk youth are not as likely to recidivate • Too much intervention can increase likelihood of recidivism • Intervention may not be necessary

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Risk Principle

• Dowden and Andrews’ meta-analysis shows that when there are interventions targeted at high risk, recidivism is reduced 19%, but target the low risk and recidivism increased 4%

• Knowing who is high risk and who is low risk matters

• Using a risk assessment to properly classify youth is essential

(Dowden & Andrews, 1999a)

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Risk Principle

•Why might dosage matter based on the risk level?

• Low risk youth may learn antisocial behaviors and attitudes when engaging with high risk youth

•While increased dosage works to disrupt antisocial networks of the high risk youth, it decreases prosocial networks for low risk youth(Latessa, 2011)

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Summary

•Assess, identify, and target youth with a higher probability of delinquency – must use an actuarial risk assessment tool

•Provide the most intensive supervision and services to higher risk youth

• Intensive supervision and services for lower risk youth can increase delinquency

The Need Principle and the Big Four

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Need Principle

•The Need Principle tells us what to target

•Certain factors are tied to delinquent behavior

•Targeting these factors will result in a reduction in future delinquency

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Need Principle

•Distinguishing risk factor from criminogenic need

•Risk factor = any characteristic related to recidivism • Static = things that cannot change, such as age at first

offense, number of adjudications • Dynamic = things that can change, such as drug use,

antisocial peers, educational needs

•Criminogenic = crime-producing

•Criminogenic needs = risk factors which predict recidivism AND are dynamic

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Need Principle

•Research shows that targeting key criminogenic risk factors will produce the best reduction in risk• “Big Four” (Andrews & Bonta, 1994)

• Antisocial attitudes

• Antisocial peers

• Antisocial personality

• History of antisocial behavior

• Other criminogenic risk factors • Substance abuse

• Education/employment

• Low family affection/poor supervision/poor communication

• Leisure & recreation

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Example: Heart Attack Study

•One international study that looked at the risk factors associated with heart attacks• Gathered data on all heart attacks• Compared to case-matched controls

•The risk of heart attack for individuals who had all 9 of these factors, amazingly, was almost 130 times higher than for somebody with none of them• The first two of these risk factors (bad lipid readings and

smoking) predicted 2/3 of all heart attacks

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Need Principle

•Risk Factors of Heart Attack 1. Increased LDL/HDL ratios (bad cholesterol) 2. Smoking 3. Diabetes 4. Hypertension 5. Abdominal obesity 6. Psychosocial (e.g., stress or depression) 7. Failure to eat fruits and vegetables daily 8. Failure to exercise 9. Failure to drink any alcohol

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Need Principle

1. Increased LDL/HDL ratios2. Smoking 3. Diabetes

4. Hypertension 5. Abdominal obesity 6. Psychosocial (e.g., stress or

depression)

7. Failure to eat fruits and vegetables daily

8. Failure to exercise 9. Failure to drink any alcohol

1. Attitudes2. Peers3. Personality

4. Substance Abuse5. Family6. Education/Employment

7. Recreation

8. Accommodations9. Financial

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Need Principle

• Field struggles with targeting the Big Four • Easier to identify if the more objective criminogenic needs

are being addressed• confirm youth is attending school

• conduct drug tests

• confirm youth is participating in programming

•More difficult to measure whether anti-social attitudes are changing or whether a youth is increasing in self-control or problem solving skills

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Need Principle

• Important that interventions focus on criminogenic needs over other issues (non-criminogenic needs)

• Failing to match proper services with criminogenic needs increases likelihood of recidivism (Viera et al., 2009)

• Currently, only 5% of at-risk youth actually receive needed evidence-based services (Henggeler and Schoenwald, 2011)

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Need Principle

•The primary targets of programs and interventions need to address criminogenic needs to reduce future delinquency

•Non-Criminogenic Needs• Self–esteem • Anxiety• Creative abilities• History of trauma/victimization

• Medical needs• Fear of official punishment

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Need Principle

•Current research does not suggest that mental health issues are a criminogenic need, meaning they are not significantly associated with delinquent behavior• A meta-analysis of 126 studies found that non-substance-

related mental illness diagnoses were either not statistically related to recidivism or were related to lower rates of recidivism (Bonta, Blais and Wilson, 2013)

•We should not ignore mental health as it does impact success in programming and interventions this makes it a responsivity factor

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Summary

•Must assess and identify criminogenic needs

•Must target the dynamic “Big Four” criminogenic needs and then the secondary criminogenic needs

•Need to reduce or eliminate focus on non-criminogenic needs exclusively

•Use a focused intervention in supervision and programming

The Responsivity Principle

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Responsivity Principle

•The Responsivity Principle tells us how to effectively work with juveniles

•What gets in the way of the youth benefiting from supervision, programming, and services?• Take into account individual learning styles• Consider barriers to interventions (e.g., transportation)

•Targeting responsivity factors will increase the likelihood for success

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Responsivity Principle

•General Responsivity• Interventions and programs that are based on cognitive-

behavior/social learning theories are generally responsive to youth

• Can be implemented in all settings and interactions with youth

• Specific Responsivity• Juveniles learn differently and have certain barriers that

should be removed before programming or addressed during programming

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Core Correctional Practices

•Core Correctional Practices (e.g., EPICS) are:• An aspect of general responsivity• A cognitive-behavioral approach that can be used in ALL

interactions with youth• Skills that staff must use and model when interacting with

youth, both IN and OUT of group and individual settings

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Core Correctional Practices

• Focus on criminogenic needs

•Provide opportunities to identify and extinguish antisocial behavior and attitudes

•Provide opportunities for teaching, developing, and increasing the proficiency of prosocial skills and behaviors

•Provide opportunities to reinforce prosocial behavior and attitudes

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Core Correctional Practices

•Core Correctional Practices (CCP), such as EPICS, include• Relationship Skills • Effective Use of Authority• Effective Social Reinforcement• Effective Disapproval• Effective Modeling• Structured Skill Learning• Structuring Skills• Problem Solving

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General Responsivity

•Two meta-analyses found that program models integrating general responsivity are more successful in reducing juvenile recidivism • Programs with therapeutic philosophies rather than a

control-oriented focus are more successful in reducing juvenile delinquency

• Programs that operate within the community saw greater reductions in recidivism than those in institutional settings

• Reductions in recidivism for high risk youth with serious delinquent behaviors was 12% - 40% (Lipsey, Wilson and Cothern, 2000; Lipsey, 2009)

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Core Correctional Practices

(Gendreau, 2003)

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Core Correctional Practices and Recidivism

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Summary

•The relevance of the responsivity principle is to identify and remove the barriers to and during interventions

• Further, cognitive behavioral or social learning interventions (e.g., Core Correctional Practices) are the most effective in reducing antisocial thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors

The Fidelity Principle

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Fidelity Principle

•The Fidelity Principle tells us how to do this work right

•Three primary areas of fidelity• Model fidelity

• Programs and interventions must be implemented with fidelity to achieve the recidivism reductions reported in the research

• Training and coaching• Juvenile corrections staff must be provided the proper tools,

training, and ongoing coaching and support to reduce the likelihood of drift

• Risk assessment fidelity• Tools must be accurately scored and validated

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Fidelity Principle

•Adherence to the three principles • Focusing on the risk principle those with the highest risk

to recidivate receive the most intensive supervision and services and those with lower risk receive limited intervention

• Focusing on the need principle identifying the dynamic criminogenic needs to target for change

• Focusing on the responsivity principle identifying and resolving the barriers to successful supervision and services and using cognitive interventions

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Model Fidelity

• Fidelity is not limited to just being trained on a program • Following the curriculum manual specifically• Coaching• Internal supervision of group facilitation• External evaluation • Ongoing technical assistance

(Latessa, 2006; Ndrecka, Bechtel, Lowenkamp, & Latessa, 2009; Lipsey, 2009)

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Model Fidelity

•Research has shown that when a program is delivered with fidelity to the model, recidivism rates can be significantly decreased

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Training and Coaching

•Coaching has been shown to help staff become more comfortable using core correctional practices • One study showed 88% of participants had a better

understanding of how to use the skills with clients after coaching• 92% of participants said that coaching helped them

understand better how to use the skills in their jobs(Labrecque and Smith, 2015)

•Because newly learned behavior is fragile and needs to be supported, training and coaching should go hand and hand. One without the other is insufficient

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Training and Coaching

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Risk Assessment Fidelity

•Why a risk assessment tool is used• Using a risk assessment tool allows the youth to be assigned

to appropriate interventions based on their risk level (Need Principle)

• If low risk youth are assigned high risk interventions, low risk youth can have higher recidivism rates (Risk Principle)

•How to maintain fidelity to a risk tool• Must have a process for inter-rater reliability to ensure the

tool is accurately scored to predict low, moderate, and high risk for the target population

• Must be validated on the target population

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Summary

•The relevance of the fidelity principle is to move toward the adoption, evaluation and dissemination of knowledge regarding the principles of effective intervention

•By integrating and systematizing the fidelity principle into our work, we are more likely to achieve the greatest reductions in future delinquency

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Summary

•The Principles of Effective Intervention have been shown to reduce recidivism when used effectively• Risk Principle – tells us WHO to target• Need Principle – tells us WHAT to target• Responsivity Principle – tells us HOW to effectively work

with juveniles• Fidelity Principle- tells us how to do this work RIGHT

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Questions/Contact

•Contact information:• Tessa Upin• tupin@crj.org

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Disclaimer

This project was supported by Grant # 2014-ZB-BX-K011 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this presentation are those of the author(s) and do not

necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.