Youth service caseworkers: Social and legal factors affecting their recommendation to place youths in secure care facilities

This study examines the effects of social and legal variables on youth service caseworkers' recommendation to place youths in a secure care setting. While the findings of this study indicate that caseworkers' recommendation to place youths in such a facility is primarily influenced by their juvenile delinquency or legal background characteristics, the social variable “family composition” has a significant impact on the recommendation. This suggests that caseworkers view single-parent families as less capable than two-parent families of managing youths' serious delinquency problems and, therefore, are more likely to recommend youths from single-parent families for secure care placement consideration. The fact that legal variables are the strongest predictors of secure care decision outcomes indicates that objective criteria are being used to determine which youths to consider for secure care placement. Also, it is found that the more offenses that are committed the more likely that one will be a violent offense. This finding implies that the issue of serious juvenile delinquency should be examined and dealt with from a broad juvenile justice perspective directed at prevention as opposed to a limited focus on only the secure care process.