Computer-Tailored Intervention for Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

Studies assessing the efficacy of juvenile justice interventions show small effects on recidivism and other outcomes. This article describes the development of a prototype of a multimedia computer-tailored intervention (Rise Above Your Situation) that relies on an evidence-based model of behavior change, the transtheoretical model, and expert system technology to deliver assessments, feedback, printed reports, and counselor reports with intervention ideas. In a feasibility test involving 60 system-involved youths and their counselors, evaluations of the program were favorable: 91.7% of youths agreed that the program could help them make positive changes, and 86.7% agreed that the program could give their counselor helpful information about them.

Keywords:

• computer-tailored intervention
• delinquency
• juvenile justice
• juvenile offender
• Rise Above Your Situation (RAYS) program
• stages of change
• substance abuse
• transtheoretical model

Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant Nos. R43DA024900 and R44DA024900). The funding agency had no role in the design and conduct of the study; the collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; or the preparation of the manuscript.

Notes

¹ Dowden and Andrews's (1999b) measure of effect size, Phi, has been converted to d to facilitate comparisons across studies. A separate review of five meta-analyses examining the effects of residential treatment for juvenile offenders found a mean effect size of d = .17 for recidivism and d = .19 across all outcomes (Grietens & Hellinckx, 2004).