Practice Profile: Police-Initiated Diversion for Youth to Prevent Future Delinquent Behavior

Evidence Rating for Outcomes

Crime & Delinquency | Multiple crime/offense types

Date: This profile was posted on May 30, 2019

This practice includes pre-court interventions or strategies that police can apply as an alternative to court processing or the imposition of formal charges against low-risk youth. This approach is designed to reduce reoffending by minimizing youth contact with the criminal justice system and divert youth toward services that address their psychosocial development and other needs that contribute to their at-risk behavior. The practice is rated Effective for reducing future delinquent behavior.

Practice Goals/Target Population

Police-initiated diversion programs are pre-court interventions or strategies that police can apply as an alternative to court processing or the imposition of formal charges in situations involving minor delinquent behavior among low-risk youth. Examples of these strategies include a caution, a restorative caution, or a final warning or reprimand. The essential ingredient across these different intervention types is that police initiate a diversionary scheme for youths to help them avoid a criminal record and the negative consequences that accrue from such a record. These alternatives are often combined with an additional program element such as referral to a treatment service provider.

This approach is designed to reduce reoffending by minimizing youth contact with the criminal justice system and diverting them toward services that address their psychosocial development and other needs that contribute to their at-risk behavior. Diversion programs provide police with a corrective response to minor delinquent behavior that does not require formal processing. Such programs are often used primarily for young people convicted for the first time or at a low level.

Practice Components/Key Personnel

Police-initiated diversion may be known by other names, such as police-led proactive prevention, police-led diversion, or pre-charge diversion. The essential features of police-initiated diversion involve police officers initiating and leading a diversionary intervention to help youth avoid a criminal record and the potential negative consequences that may result from formal system processing.

At a minimum, diversion program participants include the police officer, the youth in question, and the youth’s parents or guardians. Victims (if any) are generally not involved in the process. Instead, police officers provide a general explanation to youth and their parents about the legal and social ramifications of continued delinquent behavior. Some variations of this practice include programs that do allow for victim participation, such as cautions or restorative cautions, which include structured discussion between the victim(s) and the youth. These programs typically involve a script with certain questions to structure discussion between the person who committed the offense and the affected parties. Cautions also involve connecting the youth to other interventions and services.

Other variations of police-initiated diversion include final warnings and reprimand schemes, which use assessment-based approaches to evaluate the seriousness of the offense. Depending on the gravity of the offense, a reprimand or final warning may result in a referral to a multi-agency team for further assessment and placement in a behavioral treatment program

Practice Theory

The causal logic underlying diversion programs is supported by labeling theory and differential association theory (Wilson and Hoge 2015). Labeling theory suggests that the stigmatizing effect of labeling a youth as delinquent may create expectations for future deviant behavior and increase the likelihood of future delinquency (Bernberg et al. 2006). Diverting youth from the criminal justice system before they are labeled as “criminal” may therefore reduce reoffending.

Differential association theory posits that youth learn values, attitudes, and techniques of criminal behavior through interaction with delinquent peers (Sutherland 1939). Youth served by diversion programs are presumed to have less exposure to delinquent peers, compared with youth who are directly involved in the juvenile justice system. Interventions that minimize interaction with delinquent peers are likely to be more successful at reducing delinquency than those in which youth are exposed to delinquent peers (Wilson et al. 2018).

Meta-Analysis Snapshot
	Literature Coverage Dates	Number of Studies	Number of Study Participants
Meta Analysis 1	1979-2015	31	7824

Meta Analysis 1

Wilson and colleagues (2018) conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of police-led diversion programs on delinquency outcomes for youth between the ages of 10 and 17. To be included, studies were required to be experimental or quasi-experimental in design. All quasi-experimental designs were required to have a comparison group similar to the police-led diversion group. Studies were eligible if they examined delinquency-related outcomes, including both official and non-official measures of delinquency. Twenty-six databases and websites (such as ProQuest, NCJRS, Google Scholar, and Criminal Justice Abstracts) were searched.

Nineteen studies conducted between 1973 and 2011 (and published between 1979 and 2015) were included in the analysis. Of those, six were quasi-experimental, and 13 used a randomized control design. The authors coded 67 effect sizes on the effect of diversionary programs on delinquent behavior across 31 comparisons of diversion versus traditional processing. Several of the nineteen studies compared the effects of two or more diversion conditions with a single control condition, thus resulting in multiple comparisons.

Of the 31 interventions included in the review, 13 examined traditional caution, 14 examined caution with a referral to services, and 4 examined police restorative justice. Demographics were reported in several ways across the studies. For example, some studies described only the proportion of white or Black participants, whereas other studies placed Hispanic or Asian participants in the “Other” category. Maximum age of participants was not reported in many of the studies; however, the authors excluded any studies that included an adult population of participants aged 18 and over. Twenty-two studies took place in the United States, and 9 studies took place in Australia, Canada, or the United Kingdom. Fifteen of the studies were conducted within a single police department area (such as a city), and the other four studies covered a wider area such as a county or region.

The meta-analysis was conducted using random effects models. Primary analyses were performed using the robust standard error method of modeling statistical dependence. Effect sizes based on scaled measures of delinquency were computed as d-type effect sizes and then converted to odds ratios using the logit transformation method (Lipsey and Wilson 2001).

Date Created: July 17, 2024

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Practice Snapshot

Age: 10 - 17

Gender: Male, Female

Race/Ethnicity: White, Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Other

Targeted Population: First Time Offenders, Young Offenders

Setting (Delivery): Other Community Setting

Practice Type: Community-Oriented Policing, Diversion

Unit of Analysis: Persons

Researcher:
David B. Wilson
Distinguished University Professor
Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University

4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
United States

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Practice Profile: Police-Initiated Diversion for Youth to Prevent Future Delinquent Behavior

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Practice Summary

Practice Description

Practice Goals/Target Population

Practice Components/Key Personnel

Practice Theory

Meta-Analysis Outcomes

Meta-Analysis Methodology

Cost

Other Information

Evidence-Base (Meta-Analyses Reviewed)

Additional References

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