Juvenile Delinquency Reduction
Stemming from the strategic recommendations, and under the direction of the JCEC, the city sought and received funds from New York State to support the creation of a truancy reduction program. For the past two years, the Finn Institute has continued to work with the JCEC, providing input into program development and conducting a process and outcome evaluation. The evaluation includes a description of the contours of the truancy reduction program as it is delivered – relevant characteristics of the program population, and the nature of their involvement in the program – and also an examination of the impacts of the program at both individual and aggregate levels — on program participants’ absenteeism, school performance, and delinquency, and on neighborhood, school, and city-wide outcomes, such as juvenile crime. Impacts at the individual level are based on comparisons with a matched control group of non-participants.
The Finn Institute is also conducting a similar evaluation of another city’s truancy abatement program.
