Dr. Daniel Mears, Mark C. Stafford Professor of Criminology, has received a two-year grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, entitled “Monitoring and Assessing the Effectiveness of Juvenile Justice Sanctions.”

The goals of the study, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Avinash Bhati of Maxarth LLC, are: (1) to examine the individual and social conditions that contribute to more severe punishment of young people referred to juvenile court; (2) to assess the impact of such punishment on recidivism and whether the impact varies for certain groups (e.g., younger vs. older adolescents) and across certain settings (e.g., areas that have experienced greater social or economic disadvantage); and (3) to develop tools that researchers can use to help policymakers and practitioners better monitor and assess sanctioning decisions and their impacts.

The results of the study will help shed light on such questions as whether tougher sanctions, such as incarceration, decreases or, as some research suggests, increases recidivism, and whether such effects are more pronounced or less pronounced for some youth.