The Effectiveness of Service Integration: Studying the Crossover Youth Practice Model

Crossover youth are defined as those who have been involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Prior studies indicate that crossover youth have higher rates of reoffending than delinquent youth without a history of child welfare involvement. The Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM) is the only existing practice model for serving crossover youth. This study evaluated CYPM using a quasi-experimental design. Miami-Dade County (MDC) was selected as the experimental county and Palm Beach County (PBC) as the control county. Administrative data was collected from the juvenile justice and child welfare administrations. Results show that crossover youth from MDC are associated with a lower risk of re-offending within a year than their peers from PBC, after controlling for the confounding variables. The findings suggest the potential effectiveness of CYPM as a service integration model for crossover youth. The inclusion of service variables in the final regression model attenuated the association between CYPM participation and recidivism. However, the study was not designed to formally test mediation, and the analyses do not provide evidence that service receipt explains the relationship between CYPM participation and reduced recidivism.