Reading for life and adolescent re-arrest: Evaluating a unique juvenile diversion program
Abstract
We present results of an evaluation of Reading for Life (RFL), a diversion program for nonviolent juvenile offenders in a medium‐sized Midwestern county. The unique program uses philosophical virtue theory, works of literature, and small mentoring groups to foster moral development in juvenile offenders. Participants were randomly assigned to RFL treatment or a comparison program of community service. The RFL program generated large and statistically significant drops in future arrests. The program was particularly successful at reducing the recidivism of more serious offenses and for those groups with the highest propensity for future offenses.
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Seroczynski et al. (2016) find that a similar program decreases recidivism significantly.
“Seroczynski et al. (2016) also study an RCT for a similar program and find that it decreases recidivism significantly.”
From Prison Rehabilitation Programs: Efficiency and Targeting (2021) · cites this paper as Seroczynski et al. (2016)
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- Authors
- Seroczynski, A. D., Evans, W. N., Jobst, A. D., Horvath, L., & Carozza, G.
- Venue
- Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2016-05-06
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 662-682
- ISSN
- 0276-8739 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-6688
- OpenAlex
- W2345332490
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 4.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Keywords
- juvenile recidivism, moral development, literature-based intervention, mentoring, community service, program evaluation
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