EUGENE, Ore. – New research from the University of Oregon suggests that adolescence is the crucial intervention point for steering young women away from the criminal justice system, according to U of O officials.
The college said researchers from the U of O’s College of Education and its Prevention Science Institute followed a group of women over two decades from their mid-teens into their mid-30s. When they started participating in the research, the women were heavily involved in Oregon’s juvenile justice system and as adults nearly 75% of the women continued to be involved with the justice system and more than a third had been in jail or prison, college officials said. The college said that, on average, the women last interacted with the justice system at age 22, which suggested adolescence is the critical time to intervene.
“Adolescence is a pivotal time to provide the support and services that can lead to sustained changes into adulthood,” said Leslie Leve, one of the researchers and department head for counseling psychology and human services in the U of O’s College of Education. “Teens are undergoing tremendous changes in brain, social and personal development. They are our future employee base and future leaders. For the health of our society, it is important to invest in their growth and well-being.”
U of O officials said the research arrives at a time when women’s involvement with the U.S. justice system is growing at a faster rate than men’s with alternatives to incarceration becoming a topic of national discussion, in particular for women. The length of the study by U of O researchers, now going on 27 years, gives researchers a chance to watch the lives of women in the study unfold.
“If we had ended the study when the participants reached their early 20s, the conclusion would have been more somber: three out of four of these women who were involved in the juvenile justice system as teens continued to be involved with the justice system as adults,” said Maria Schweer-Collins, a research assistant professor at the U of O’s College of Education and the Prevention Science Institute. “But because we continued to follow them, we see that for many, their life takes a turn.”
College officials said that future research will examine such potential factors as entering a long-term stable relationship with a partner, becoming a parent, and changes in how the justice system responded to women as they aged.
