A quasi-experimental evaluation of a specialized treatment service for youth adjudicated for sexual offences in Queensland, Australia

IF 2.5 1区社会学 Q1 CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY

Journal of Criminal Justice Pub Date : 2025-06-17 DOI:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102462

Jesse Cale , Tyson Whitten , Francisco Perales , Dustin O'Shannessy , Benoit Leclerc

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives

This study presents a quasi-experimental evaluation of a specialized treatment program for young people in Australia who have committed sexual offences.

Methods

Using administrative data from Queensland's Department of Youth Justice and Victim Support, the study examined 1489 young people processed for sexual offences between 2010 and 2024, 286 of whom were referred to and received treatment at a specialized service in the state. Covariate-adjusted and propensity score-based methods, along with Cox regression analysis, were used to assess treatment effects on violent, non-violent, and sexual recidivism for 144 young people who received treatment from the service and 303 who did not.

Results

Results indicate that treatment reduced overall recidivism by 34 %–44 %, with the greatest reductions observed in sexual recidivism (78 %–90 %).

Conclusions

These findings support the effectiveness of specialized treatment for young people who have committed sexual offences. The implications of methodological decisions in quasi-experimental research designs with this population are also discussed.

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对澳大利亚昆士兰州性犯罪青少年专项治疗服务的准实验性评估

本研究提出了一个准实验评估的专门治疗方案的年轻人在澳大利亚谁犯了性犯罪。该研究使用了昆士兰州青年司法和受害者支持部门的行政数据，调查了2010年至2024年间因性犯罪而被处理的1489名年轻人，其中286人被转介到该州的专门服务机构接受治疗。采用协变量调整和基于倾向得分的方法，以及Cox回归分析，对144名接受治疗的年轻人和303名未接受治疗的年轻人进行了暴力、非暴力和性再犯的治疗效果评估。结果表明，治疗使总体累犯率降低了34% - 44%，其中性累犯率降低幅度最大（78% - 90%）。结论：这些发现支持了对性犯罪青少年进行专门治疗的有效性。本文还讨论了准实验研究设计中方法学决策的含义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Criminal Justice CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY-

CiteScore

6.90

自引率

9.10%

发文量

审稿时长

23 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Criminal Justice is an international journal intended to fill the present need for the dissemination of new information, ideas and methods, to both practitioners and academicians in the criminal justice area. The Journal is concerned with all aspects of the criminal justice system in terms of their relationships to each other. Although materials are presented relating to crime and the individual elements of the criminal justice system, the emphasis of the Journal is to tie together the functioning of these elements and to illustrate the effects of their interactions. Articles that reflect the application of new disciplines or analytical methodologies to the problems of criminal justice are of special interest. Since the purpose of the Journal is to provide a forum for the dissemination of new ideas, new information, and the application of new methods to the problems and functions of the criminal justice system, the Journal emphasizes innovation and creative thought of the highest quality.