Indianapolis Family Group Conferencing Experiment
Problems addressed
Recidivism
Effectiveness

Promising

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Promising

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Life periods served
Children (4 to 13 years)
Where the program was applied
Ambulatory - Social services centers
Country of application
United States
Description

This is a program to reorient the justice system toward primary juvenile offenders. The objective is to break the criminal cycle before it reaches the stage of criminal recidivism.
The criteria used to determine eligibility for participation in the project required that the youth be no older than 14, have no prior convictions, have committed a crime that was not serious or violent, have no other pending charges, and have taken responsibility for the crime.
Eligible charges included assault, cheating, disorderly conduct, larceny, and theft. The youth were reviewed for eligibility by court judges and selected for the program using a random assignment procedure.

Impact evaluations

An experimental study showed that after a 2-year follow-up period, there was a statistically significant reduction in recidivism for who participated in the program compared to those who participated in the control group and did not receive the intervention [1].
The study included a total sample of 782 cases (youth), of which 400 were assigned to the experimental group and 382 to the control group. However, the groups were reduced, and there were 322 cases that completed the treatment program and 233 that remained in the control group [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] McGarrell, E. F., & Hipple, N. K. (2007). Family group conferencing and re‐offending among first‐time juvenile offenders: The Indianapolis experiment. Justice Quarterly, 24(2), 221-246. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418820701294789

Information source