Do juveniles offenders locked up together tend to get in more trouble later than those who are arrested and remain at home awaiting disposition?

Psychology research assistant professor Cheri Shapiro is poring through South Carolina juvenile justice data to find out if that's true. It's part of a two-year study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that's focused on the way South Carolina evaluates its youthful offenders. Bradley Smith, a USC psychology professor, is co-principal investigator on the study.

"When kids get arrested in South Carolina, the judge can order a community (at home) evaluation or a secure evaluation in which they are placed in a secure facility for up to 45 days," said Shapiro, who was director of consultation and evaluation services at the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice for several years.

"Sometimes you can have two juveniles charged with the same offense, and one gets sent to a facility for evaluation and the other does not. I want to find out if the ones who are confined in the facility and exposed to other deviant youth engage in more deviant behavior in the future."

A growing body of psychological literature suggests that placing deviant youth together is correlated with more negative behavior in the future. Though it sounds plausible, empirical evidence is necessary before changes can be considered to juvenile evaluation policies, Shapiro said.

To that end Shapiro's archival research is comparing the criminal records of juveniles who were assigned community (at home) evaluations with those assigned secure evaluations. She is choosing records of juveniles who were arrested for for the first time and for similar offenses; those charged with serious crimes always are assigned secure evaluation.

"I'm looking at whether there is a link between where kids are evaluated and future deviant behavior," she said. "The interventions of our juvenile justice system should not create more harm--that's the bottom line."

Most youthful offenders who are in the Department of Juvenile Justice system are not repeat serious offenders, Shapiro said, and the most common offenses--truancy, disturbing school, and contempt of court--are non-violent.

3/06