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Recidivism

Each year, the Commission publishes a recidivism report that details the outcomes of youth who were closed from a juvenile probation department in the Commonwealth in a particular cohort year.  For the purposes of this report, recidivism is defined as: within two years of case closure, a subsequent adjudication of delinquency in juvenile court or a conviction in criminal court for a felony or misdemeanor offense. Beginning with the first recidivism report on juveniles closed in 2007, these reports have analyzed statewide and county-level recidivism rates and presented detailed information related to demographic variables, offense variables, out-of-home service variables, and serious, violent, and/or chronic offenders. The latest report, The Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Recidivism Report: Juveniles Closed 2007-2019, updates the analysis of recidivism trends and predictors to include juveniles closed in 2019. The last three recidivism reports have also added analyses of the relationship between juveniles’ assigned risk level on the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory™ (YLS) and recidivism.