This research practicum is an outcome study of the Specialized Out-of-Home Care project (S.O.H.C.). The project, administered by the Oregon Children's Services Division, was designed to provide alternative care resources to specifically meet the needs of Portland's juvenile target offenders, who required out-of-home care. The juvenile offenders accepted into the S.O.H.C. project were between the ages of ten to eighteen, and had been adjudicated for target ctimes. The S.O.H.C. project was federally funded for a twenty-nine month period beginning on May 1, 1974 and extends through September of 1976. This study will include only the clients referred and placed during a one-year period, from July 1, 1974 to June 31, 1975. Additional "up-date" information was collected in October of 1975. A variety of alternative care resources were utilized as placements for the client population. Clients were placed in foster families, group homes, day-care settings and residential centers. This practicum was undertaken as a cooperative effort by four M.S.W. students, of Portland State University's School of Social Work, working conjointly with the S.O.H.C.'s project staff in the over-all evaluation of the project. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact that services provided by the S.O.H.C. project have had on the target population of juvenile offenders.

If correctional institutions are to function according to established criteria, that is, to “correct” the deviant behavior of juvenile delinquents, then one obvious requirement is to have continuous contact with that individual over a period of time. This research project is one attempt to study runaways from the juvenile delinquent girls institution. This study specifically focuses on what factors influence a girl to run away and what factors encourage her to stay at Villa St. Rose. Both researchers discovered in working at Villa St. Rose that one the biggest obstacles for the treatment program was the number of runaways that occurred. As a treatment facility having female adolescents in their care, runaways were demoralizing to the staff and debilitating to treatment.

The basic purpose of this study was to investigate if placement in a cottage designated solely for juveniles involved in vocational training significantly improved the institutional adjustment and recidivism rate of institutionalized male juvenile delinquents. An additional purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of an involvement in a vocational training program on institutional and post release adjustment of institutionalized juvenile delinquents. Statistical analysis of the data supported the basic hypothesis that subjects who were involved in the vocational training, regardless of cottage placement, would adjust better to the institution. The two groups of vocational subjects had fewer admissions to the Discipline Cottage and a greater frequency of achievement of privilege-level status than did the group of subjects who did not receive vocational training. The hypothesis that vocational subjects who were housed in a separate cottage would adjust better to the institution than would the vocational subjects who were housed in the regular cottages was also supported. The vocational subjects who were housed separately had fewer escapes, fewer admissions to the Discipline Cottage, and a greater frequency of attainment of privilege-level status than either of the other two groups. The analysis also supported the hypothesis that recidivism rates would not be differentially affected by an involvement in the vocational program, regardless of the cottage placement.

The present investigation was designed to increase the moral judgment and simultaneous role-taking skills of institutionalized male juvenile delinquents and investigated possible effects of affect on the subjects' responses to treatment.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Although approximately 60%-80% of detained adolescents have a psychiatric disorder, little is known about their utilization of mental health and substance-related treatment services upon release from detention. Given that treatment can potentially reduce symptomology and recidivism, the study examined detained adolescents’ post-detention treatment utilization and longitudinal patterns of use. Data were abstracted from the electronic juvenile justice records and medical records of 9664 detained adolescents (62.7% male; 34.8% White, 65.2% Black; 72.6% with disorder) with Medicaid coverage held in a Midwestern detention center at some time during 1998-2011. A series of statistical tests (e.g., chi-square, ANOVA, logistic regression, Kaplan-Meier survival analyses, Cox regression) were conducted to identify group differences in treatment utilization during the 14-year follow-up period. Following detention release, approximately 66.2% of adolescents were re-arrested and 54.9% were re-detained/incarcerated. Treatment utilization within two years post-detention was 36.7%; 31.4% obtained mental health treatment, 10.4% obtained substance-related treatment, 36.0% obtained outpatient treatment, and 6.2% obtained non-outpatient treatment. Among treatment users, 22.5% dropped out of treatment within 1-3 sessions and 40.6% experienced gaps (>45 days) between treatment services. Treatment utilization was significantly higher among males, White (vs. Black) adolescents, younger adolescents, violent (vs. non-violent) offenders, recidivists (vs. non-recidivists), and adolescents with mental disorders (vs. substance-related disorders). Variables associated with increased likelihood of post-detention treatment included: male gender, psychiatric disorder(s), pre-detention arrest(s), charge severity, violent offender, incarceration, and pre-detention treatment; age and Black race were associated with decreased likelihood of treatment. As one of the only longitudinal studies to examine treatment utilization among detained adolescents upon community reentry, findings suggest limited service utilization, as well as treatment gaps and disparities. Future research should focus on the treatment needs of detained adolescents, factors associated with disparities, and programs/policies to ensure consistent identification, referral, and connection to care for detained adolescents.

A combined, multiple-methods action research strategy is constructed and used to assess teams of personnel working in and around group homes for mentally retarded adults and young offenders in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador between August, 1983 and January, 1987. Grounded in the practise experiences and previous research of the author, the question "what works?" is developed both as a contextual framework for the examination of teamwork as a component of professional practise and as a contextual feature of group care. The question is used to guide categorization and organization of differences amongst 51 sample teams in order to isolate valid and reliable measures of team work functioning. Drawing from four distinct theoretical traditions comprising core knowledge of human behaviour in the social environment, multiple methodologies for differentiating within and amongst teams are combined to triangulate data around the central research question. A methodology for the collection and analysis of data which are thought to represent the "lived experiences" of sample subjects is developed and used to illuminate the phenomenological alignments of team members. Qualitative themes in the reports of on- and off-the-job satisfactions and frustrations for sample subjects are examined for teams and for occupational groupings. Separate measures of Level of Organizational Change and Prevalence of Stressful working Conditions are developed and used to examine the interplay between these variables and other preselected variables. The assessment procedures and the typology of team functioning developed by Fulcher (1983) are replicated. Specific flaws and limitations in Fulcher's methodology and design are overcome through the use of a different theoretical orientation, extensions and refinements of the methodology, changes in instrumentation and by replicating his findings with a more homogeneous sample. Four of the team styles of adaptation are empirically validated and their descriptions refined. Both linear and non-linear statistical analytic methods are used to test for correlation and association between and among preselected variables. The Heimler/Fulcher Work Orientation Schedule, which serves as the basis for Fulcher's interpretative categorization of teams, is subjected to tests of reliability and validity and found to meet predetermined expectations. Through the use of an international, comparative data base, norms for team satisfaction and ratio of frustration to satisfaction for this instrument are empirically validated. Further research using Fulcher's typology along with the Work Orientation Schedule is indicated. Field observation recordings, sample subjects' personal narratives, the social policy and corporate contexts in which the study takes place, and a mythical, yet ultimately necessary, experiment which takes place in the future are all used to illuminate and ground the findings in the action research process.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the research project reported below, the researcher investigates the shortterm effect. of a life skills program, Free to Grow, on the self-concept and locus of control of juvenile offenders in the Allandale-prison, by means of the following questionnaires: the Greeff Self-concept Questionnaire, the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children and the Desired-Undesired Eve.nts Locus of Control Scale. The life skills program is based on experiential learning principles and focusses on self-development and the acquisition of a wide spectrum of social skills. The 21 subjects participating in the project were divided into two groups: The experimental group consisting of 11 subjects participated in the program over a two week-period for altogether 32 hours, while the remaining 10 subjects formed the control group. The most important findings of the study were that the program participants' self-concept showed no statiscally meaningful improvement, but their locus of control as measured by the Nowicki Strickland Locus of Control Scale for children, made a statistically meaningful internal shift. The study concludes with important recommendations for follow-up studies. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In die onderstaande studie is die korttermyneffek van 'n lewensvaardigheidsprogram, Free to Grow, op die selfkonsep en lokus van kontrole van jeugoortreders in die Allandale-gevangenis ondersoek met behulp van die volgende vraelyste: die Greeffselfkonsepvraelys, die Nowicki-Strickland Lokus van Kontrole Skaal vir Kinders en die Wenslike en Onwenslike Gebeurtenisse Lokus van Kontrole Skaal. Die program is gebaseer op eksperensiële leerbeginsels en fokus op selfontwikkeling en die aanleer van 'n wye spektrum van sosiale vaardighede. Die 21 subjekte wat aan die projek deelgeneem het, is in twee groepe verdeel: Die eksperimentele groep bestaande uit 11 subjekte het oor 'n periode van twee weke vir altesaam 32 uur die program deurloop, terwyl die oorblywende 10 subjekte die kontrolegroep gevorm het. Die belangrikste bevindings van die studie was dat die programdeelnemers se selfkonsep nie statisties betekenisvol verbeter het nie, maar dat hulle lokus van kontrole, soos gemeet deur die Nowicki-Strickland Lokus van Kontrole Skaal vir Kinders, wel statisties beduidend meer intern geword het na afloop van die program. Die studie word afgesluit met belangrike aanbevelings vir opvolgstudies.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work