Dr. Cavanagh's latest article, titled "Juvenile Justice- and Dual System-Involved Youth: The Role of Primary Caregiver Monitoring Habits on Juvenile Recidivism" was recently published in The Journal of Research on Crime and Delinquency.
We know caregiver monitoring generally protects against delinquency, but what about for youth who are dually involved in both the juvenile justice system and child welfare system?
We tested whether primary caregiving monitoring habits are protective against overall, violent, and non-violent recidivism among youth who had been arrested and who did or did not have additional contact with the child welfare system.
We found that primary caregiver monitoring knowledge is protective against all forms of recidivism for both juvenile justice only and dually-involved youth, and that child welfare system contact does not moderate the relation.
These findings suggest that even for kids with child welfare system contact, parental monitoring reduces recidivism after a youth’s first arrest. Practitioners are encouraged to educate parents of dually-involved youth on effective parental monitoring habits.
Among mothers of justice-involved youth-- particularly Latina mothers-- those living in more disordered neighborhoods faced more economic consequences of the pandemic. Thus, women with multiple historically underserved identities (e.g., those living in disadvantaged neighborhoods, those with childcare responsibilities, Latinas, justice-involved families) were uniquely vulnerable to the economic impacts of the pandemic.
The results of this paper suggest that significant, targeted, tailored outreach is needed to address the needs of vulnerable communities, including the families of youth who are justice-involved, to prevent disadvantages from compounding.