A Statewide Analysis of the Impact of Restitution and Fees on Juvenile Recidivism in Florida Across Race & Ethnicity
Abstract
Whether the imposition of monetary sanctions is related to juvenile recidivism is explored overall and across race and ethnicity. Leveraging a statewide sample, logistic regression was used to predict fees and restitution assignment based on youth/case characteristics, hierarchical linear and logistic random-effects regression examined the association between neighborhood characteristics with fees and restitution, and propensity score matching examined whether fees and/or restitution are related to reoffending. No race/ethnic differences were found in the proportion of youth receiving court fees, yet when fees were administered both Black and Hispanic youth received higher fees. Neighborhood characteristics have minimal impact on whether (or the amounts) monetary sanctions were assigned. Post-matching, fees increased recidivism, as did being Black or Hispanic. Interactions between race/ethnicity and both fees and restitution showed Black youth with restitution had a higher recidivism likelihood. Monetary sanctions imposed on youth involved in the juvenile justice system has a potential deleterious impact on recidivism.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
Agnew R. (2006). Pressured into crime: An overview of general strain theory. Oxford University Press.
Agnew R., Brezina T. (2019). General strain theory. In Krohn M. D., Hendrix N., Hall G. P., Lizotte A. J. (Eds.), Handbook on crime and deviance (2nd ed.). Springer.
Apel R. J., Sweeten G. (2010). Propensity score matching in criminology and criminal justice. In Handbook of quantitative criminology (pp. 543–562). Springer.
Baglivio M. T. (2009). The assessment of risk to recidivate among a juvenile offending population. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(6), 596–607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2009.09.008
Baglivio M. T., Jackowski K. (2013). Examining the validity of a juvenile offending risk assessment instrument across gender and race/ethnicity. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 11(1), 26–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541204012440107
Baglivio M. T., Wolff K. T., Epps N., Nelson R. (2017). Predicting adverse childhood experiences: The importance of neighborhood context in youth trauma among delinquent youth. Crime & Delinquency, 63(2), 166–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128715570628
Baglivio M. T., Wolff K. T., Piquero A. R., Bilchik S., Jackowski K., Greenwald M. A., Epps N. (2016). Maltreatment, child welfare, and recidivism in a sample of deep-end crossover youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45(4), 625–654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0407-9
Baird C., Healy T., Johnson K., Bogie A., Dankert E. W., Scharenbroch C. (2013). A comparison of risk assessment instruments in juvenile justice. National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
Bazemore G., Umbreit M. (1995). Rethinking the sanctioning function in juvenile court: Retributive and restorative responses to youth crime. Crime & Delinquency, 41(3), 296–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128795041003002
Beckett K., Harris A. M. (2011). On cash and conviction: Monetary sanctions as misguided policy. Criminology and Public Policy, 10(3), 505–537. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2011.00726.x.
Capowich G. E., Mazerolle P., Piquero A. (2001). General strain theory, situational anger, and social networks: An assessment of conditioning influences. Journal of Criminal Justice, 29(5), 445–461. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0047-2352(01)00101-5
Cook T. D., Trulson C. R. . (2022). Comparing official measures of recidivism in juvenile justice. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 48(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-022-09672-x
Coulton C. J., Crampton D. S., Irwin M., Spilsbury J. C., Korbin J. E. (2007). How neighborhoods influence child maltreatment: A review of the literature and alternative pathways. Child Abuse & Neglect, 31(11-12), 1117–1142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.03.023
Craig J. M., Wolff K. T., Baglivio M. T. (2021). Resilience in context: The association between neighborhood disadvantage and cumulative positive childhood experiences among justice-involved youth. Crime & Delinquency, 67(11), 1647–1675. https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287211029852
Feld B. C. (1999). Bad kids: Race and the transformation of the juvenile court. Oxford University Press.
Fines and Fees Justice Center and Juvenile Law Center. (2022). Dreams deferred: The impact of juvenile fees on Florida’s children, families, and future. https://jlc.org/sites/default/files/attachments/2022-01/Dreams_Deferred_Florida_Juvenile_Fees_Report_2022_0.pdf
Harris A. 2016. A pound of flesh: Monetary sanctions as a punishment for the poor. Russell Sage. (American Sociological Association’s Rose Monograph Series).
Harris A., Smith T. (2022). Monetary sanctions as chronic and acute health stressors: The emotional strain of people who owe court fines and fees. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 8(2), 36–56. https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2022.8.2.02
Juvenile Law Center. (2016). Debtor’s prison for kids? The high cost of fines and fees in the juvenile justice system. Juvenile Law Center.
Leuven E., Sianesi B. (2003). Stata module to perform full Mahalanobis and propensity score matching, common support graphing, and covariate imbalance testing. Department of Economics, Boston College: Statistical Software Components S432001.
Lunt M. (2014). Selecting an appropriate caliper can be essential for achieving good balance with propensity score matching. American Journal of Epidemiology, 179(2), 226–235. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwt212
Morris N., Tonry M. H. (1990). Between prison and probation: Intermediate punishments in a rational sentencing system. Oxford University Press.
Mustillo S. A., Lizardo O. A., McVeigh R. M. (2018). Editors’ Comment: A Few Guidelines for Quantitative Submissions. American Sociological Review, 83, 1281–1283.
Pattillo M., Kirk G. (2020). Pay unto Caesar: Breaches of justice in the monetary sanctions regime. UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review, 4(1), 49–77. 34179696.
Piquero A. R., Gomez-Smith Z., Langton L. (2004), Discerning unfairness where others may not: Low self-control and unfair sanction perceptions. Criminology, 42(3), 699–734. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2004.tb00534.x
Piquero A. R., Jennings W. G. (2017). Research note: Justice system–imposed financial penalties increase the likelihood of recidivism in a sample of adolescent offenders. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 15(3), 325–340. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541204016669213
Rodriguez N. (2013). Concentrated disadvantage and the incarceration of youth: Examining how context affects juvenile justice. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 50(2), 189–215.
Rosenbaum P. R., Rubin D. B. (1983). The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika, 70(1), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/70.1.41
Rosenbaum P. R., Rubin D. B. (1985). Constructing a control group using multivariate matched sampling methods that incorporate the propensity score. The American Statistician, 39(1), 33–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.1985.10479383
Ruback B., Bergstrom M. (2006). Economic sanctions in criminal justice: Purposes, effects, and implications. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 33(2), 242–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854805284414
Smith D. J. (2007). The foundations of legitimacy. In Tyler T. R. (Ed.), Legitimacy and criminal justice; an international perspective (pp. 30–58). : Russell Sage Foundation.
Smith L. E., Mozaffar N. S., Feierman J., Parker L., NeMoyer A., Goldstein N. E., Spennce J. M. H., Thompson M. C., Jenkins V. L. (2022). Reimagining restitution: New approaches to support youth and communities. https://www.jlc.org/resources/reimagining-restitution-new-approaches-support-youth-and-communities
Teague R., Mazerolle P., Legosz M., Sanderson J. (2008). Linking childhood exposure to physical abuse and adult offending: Examining mediating factors and gendered relationships. Justice Quarterly, 25(2), 313–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820802024689
Thibaut J., Walker L. (1975). Procedural justice: A psychological analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
Tyler T. (1988). What is procedural justice? Criteria used by citizens to assess the fairness of legal procedures. Law & Society Review, 22(1), 103–135. https://doi.org/10.2307/3053563
Tyler T. (2003). Procedural justice, legitimacy, and the effective rule of law. In Tonry M. (Ed.), Crime and justice (pp. 283–357). University of Chicago Press.
Tyler T. (2006). Psychological perspectives on legitimacy and legitimation. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 375–400. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190038.
UCLA criminal justice law Review. (2020). Volume IV. Entire Special Issue.
Winokur-Early K., Hand G. A., Blankenship J. (2012). Validity and reliability of the Florida positive achievement change tool (PACT) risk and needs assessment instrument: A three-phase evaluation (validation study, factor analysis, inter-rater reliability). Justice Research Center.
Wolff K. T., Baglivio M. T., Piquero A. R. (2017). The relationship between adverse childhood experiences and recidivism in a sample of juvenile offenders in community-based treatment. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 61(11), 1210–1242. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X15613992
Biographies
Michael T. Baglivio is the vice president of Research and Development at Youth Opportunity, with focus on the effectiveness of juvenile treatment programming on short- and long-term performance measures and outcomes. He earned his PhD from the College of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of Florida. His research examines the repercussions of adverse childhood experiences exposures, structured decision-making tools, and juvenile justice policy and reform. Michaelreceived a courtesy faculty appointment from the University of South Florida in 2020.
Kevin T. Wolff is an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He also serves as the research advisor to the doctoral program. He earned his PhD from the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University. Professor Wolff’s research interests include adverse childhood experiences, dynamic risk assessment, program evaluation, and quantitative methods. Recently he received the Tory J. Caeti Memorial Award from The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in recognition of his contribution to the discipline.
Alex R. Piquero is Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology and Arts & Sciences Distinguished Scholar at the University of Miami (on public service leave while he is the Director of Bureau of Justice Statistics). His research interests include criminal careers, criminological theory, public policy, and quantitative methods. He is Fellow of both the American Society of Criminology and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. In 2019, he received the ACJS Bruce Smith Sr. Award for outstanding contributions to criminal justice and in 2020 he received the ASC Division of Developmental and Life Course Criminology Distinguished Achievement Award.
Cite
Cite
Cite
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published online: June 4, 2023
Issue published: October 2023
Keywords
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice.
View All Journal MetricsPublication usage*
Total views and downloads: 978
*Publication usage tracking started in December 2016
Publications citing this one
Receive email alerts when this publication is cited
Web of Science: 7 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 5
- The influence of legal financial obligations (LFOs) on probation violations: does type of LFO matter?
- Estimating the Effects of Restitution Penalties on Juvenile Recidivism
- Effect of Juvenile Justice Financial Sanctions on Youth's Recidivism
- Advancing Youth Justice
- Changing Responses to Juvenile Arrests: Analyzing 30 Years of Juvenile Court Records
- The long reach of juvenile and criminal legal debt: How monetary sanctions shape legal cynicism and adultification
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
I am signed in as:
View my profileSign out
I can access personal subscriptions, purchases, paired institutional access and free tools such as favourite journals, email alerts and saved searches.
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
