Recidivism and drug use among school-age children

This paper is the result of an investigation of recidivism rates among teenaged children who completed a program designed to improve communication between the children and their parents. A sample of 62 children from 13 to 18 years old was utilized. All had been referred to a mental health program by juvenile courts for therapeutic intervention because of drug offenses. The intervention program stressed family communication and communication techniques and required both the child and parents to attend. Three types of rates of recidivism were then obtained from juvenile court records for each sample member including all referrals, adjusted referrals, (excluding such referrals for truancy, fighting, traffic offenses, etc.), and those referrals for drug offenses only. These were analyzed for both pre- and post- intervention length of time. Analysis of data revealed significant (p v .001) decrease for all three categories of referral. Notable was that the recidivism rate for drug offenses declined significantly. While this data is encouraging some considerations are necessary. First, the degree of experimental control was limited. The use of a control group would perhaps have been beneficial. Secondly, one must consider the effect of the "arrest experience" and its relationship to learning how to avoid getting caught for the same offense twice. This could be examined further if the pre- and post-intervention periods could be lengthened. A final consideration would be the effect of other intervention programs on recidivism. since many of the children were receiving more than one type of therapy. The question of which intervention program most effected the decline of recidivism would have to be answered before one could accept the conclusion that the communication program was indeed responsible for the significant decrease in recidivism.