Risico- en beschermende factoren voor het niet afronden van een leerstraf bij jonge delinquenten

Abstract

In the current existing literature several risk and protective factors have already been identified to be associated with the criminal behavior of youngsters. A study into the risk and protective factors that are associated with whether or not a community service intervention is completed among Dutch youngsters has not yet been conducted. As there are signs that the target group for this intervention changes, additional research into these factors is required. Accordingly, the current study examines the associations between several risk and protective factors in the various domains of the national juvenile justice instrument (in Dutch: Landelijk Instrumentarium Jeugdstrafrechtketen or LIJ) and the (un)successful completion of a community service intervention among a sample (N = 48) of youngsters between the ages of 12 and 17 years who had been given a community service intervention in the second half of 2023. The results of a logistic regression analysis indicated that protective factors in the domain 'Relationships' and risk factors in the domain 'Mental health' are significantly related to whether or not a youngster successfully completes a community service intervention. Although the ‘Family’ domain was not significantly related to the completion of a community service intervention, the result of an independent chi-square test suggested that the association between the subdomain ‘high parental problems’ and the unsuccessful completion of an educational sentence was significant. Through this research benchmarks have been provided to make the community service interventions more person- and system-oriented and effective, so that they continue to meet the target group.