The study will focus on juvenile arrest and recidivism rates in Fulton County, Georgia, since the area experiences above-average recidivism rates compared to the national figures. These high figures can be attributed to the school-to-prison pipeline effect, which has resulted in high cases of youth convictions, leading to about $ 90, 000 being spent annually in the detainment of a single youth. With this information in mind, the study aims at assessing the effectiveness of the rehabilitation programs available to convicted juveniles and how best the programs can be improved. The study's problem statement revolves around the rising recidivism rates, which have questioned the effectiveness of available rehabilitation programs, hence necessitating the need for an assessment into the diversion programs.
Going deeper into the study, a quantitative approach will be employed in an aim to evaluate the rehabilitation programs practiced by the Fulton County Department of Juvenile Justice. The variables of interest are juvenile arrest records and recidivism rates, which become the independent variables, and the types of crimes being committed becoming the covariates. The study utilizes two research questions that have been hypothesized as follows to guide the scope. There is no statistically significant difference in the rate of arrest and recidivism rates among juveniles within Fulton County, Georgia, or there is a statistically significant difference in the rate of arrest and recidivism rates among juveniles within Fulton County, Georgia, all based on objective data from the research.
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In the theoretical framework section, the study adopts two main frameworks, which are social learning theory by Ronald Akers and Differential association theory by Edwin Sutherland. These two theories interrelate to the issue at hand, which is juvenile recidivism. In the next chapter, which is the methodology, specifics of the study are discussed. For starters, the study will adopt a quantitative approach that will enable the generalization of the findings such that proportions of success for the various diversion programs can be assessed and potential weaknesses unveiled. Furthermore, adopting a research design has been dictated by the various recidivism studies which adopt this approach.
Building further onto the design, secondary sources of data will be utilized, which will entail case files in the Fulton County Juvenile Court of convicted juveniles aged between 14 and 17 years old. For a case record to be included as a potential sample in the study, the corresponding juvenile convict must have convicted a felony as explained in the US constitution and enrolled in a diversion program within Fulton County. Additionally, the convict should be between 14 and 17 years old and be a resident of Fulton County over the past five years. Expounding on the diversion programs, the study will only include programs that have been endorsed by the government. Other non-endorsed programs will not be included despite having similar objectives.
The sample size was calculated using Fischer's formula recommended by Charan and Biswas, amounting to about 368 case records dating between 2013 and 2017 based on the reporting period of the Fulton County Juvenile Court. In the collection of the required data, several vital pointers, as discussed below, will be adopted. Purposive sampling technique will be used to gather the case files which meet the inclusion criteria, as mentioned earlier, with the help of the Court clerk after obtaining permission from the Fulton County Juvenile Court. Also, adjusting the sample size based on the prevalence of recidivism statistics, the ratio of male to female convicts will be 3:2, respectively, since more males are convicted in contrast to the female gender. Once the sample size is met, the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences will be used to code the collected data to be used later for analysis by the same software.
Looking at the data analysis plan, the first research question will be analyzed using descriptive statistics, such that the frequencies, mean and skewness for recidivism pattern recognition will be provided. In the second research question, inferential statistics such as the chi-square and the Pearson's correlation coefficient will be calculated to effectively determine the relationship between the rate of arrests and recidivism among juveniles in Fulton County, Georgia.
Generally, the findings of the study will indicate the effectiveness of the available diversion programs and promote the incorporation of family-based diversion programs into the rehabilitation efforts. In conclusion, about $180million is spent annually on the conviction of youth, which could otherwise have been used for other development issues such as health insurance. The findings of the study have the potential to alleviate these adversities leading to further economic development.
