Juvenile risk assessments are standardized rating tools used by court practitioners to measure criminogenic risk in justice-involved youth. To capture individual fluctuation in risk level over time, juvenile risk assessments are often readministered throughout court supervision. The purpose of this study is to clarify the average criminogenic risk score trajectory among justice-involved youth, both in aggregate and by race/ethnicity. Analyses draw upon a sample of 611 justice-involved youths who received two or more risk assessment scores and were under court supervision for at least 1 year. Using multilevel modeling, findings indicate that risk scores decrease over the first 19 months of court supervision before rebounding in increasingly larger increments. Furthermore, risk scores of White youth appear to be most amenable to reduction over time, while scores of Black youth remain stagnant. Results have implications toward understanding the gains and losses in risk score reduction observed in youth under prolonged court supervision.

Juvenile risk assessments are used to predict likelihood of reoffending in court-involved youths, and inform several decisions throughout court supervision. Accordingly, it is critical that the psychometric properties of juvenile risk assessment instruments are consistent for youths across demographic subgroups, particularly biological sex. This study tests the measurement invariance of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) by sex. Analyses draw from 2,384 youths who were adjudicated as delinquent in a county-level juvenile court. Results indicate that the factor configuration and structure of the YLS/CMI are consistent for youths across sex. However, boys and girls differ appreciably in risk profile. Findings validate the use of the YLS/CMI and highlight the importance of responsivity to sex-based variation in criminogenic risk.

Neighborhood-level characteristics may inform youths' experience of parental incarceration; however, their precise role has not yet been established. Some empirical evidence indicates that neighborhood disorder compounds the psychological distress of parental incarceration because youth living in disorderly neighborhoods are more likely to be affected by other related stressors. Other theorists suggest that neighborhood disorder mitigates the psychological distress of parental incarceration because the residents of disordered neighborhoods may be more equipped to address the collateral challenges associated with incarceration. Drawing upon secondary data from 1,186 male youth who had been arrested for the first time, the present study empirically tested these competing hypotheses by examining the moderating role of neighborhood disorder in the predictive relationship between parental incarceration and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). The results indicate that both youth of color and youth living in high levels of neighborhood disorder experience no incremental change in GAD and MDD scores when a parent is incarcerated. However, parental incarceration is associated with significantly higher GAD and MDD scores among White youth in nondisordered neighborhoods. The results speak to the contextual mechanisms that inform youths' experience of parental incarceration.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, social inequities have compounded hardships among justice-involved families, who are more likely to be marginalized by systemic disadvantage. Little is known about the experience of the pandemic for justice-involved families, particularly those with an incarcerated family member. We examined the concerns and resource barriers of women in justice-involved families, including the unique challenges faced by those with a currently incarcerated family member. Results revealed bimodal concern for, and impact of the pandemic on, their incarcerated family member; however, economic concerns largely superseded concern for their incarcerated family members. Additional analyses highlighted the financial precarity of families with an incarcerated family member, who reported more housing instability, less access to transportation, greater food insecurity, and more discrimination. These findings highlight the need to support marginalized families during a national crisis; justice-involved families are more likely to face systemic barriers that may be exacerbated by the pandemic.