This study adopted a systemic approach to studying intervention efforts with delinquent youth, examining the association between several youth corrections programs and adult criminal outcomes. Two studies were designed to use juvenile and adult court records to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment programs provided to delinquent youth in state custody. The results of Study 1 suggested that court-recorded delinquent charges can be used to estimate delinquency severity. The results of Study 2 presented a discouraging but not entirely unexpected illustration of the effectiveness of intervention efforts among delinquent youth. It was found that time spent in juvenile detention facilities, work programs, and group homes was associated with negative adult criminal outcomes. No links between time spent in youth corrections programs and positive outcomes were identified. Implications for future program evaluation efforts are discussed.
The Delaware Project, initiated in a conference at the University of Delaware, aims to redefine psychological clinical science training in ways that emphasize continuity across a spectrum of intervention development activities ranging from basic research to implementation and dissemination. The project generated specific recommendations for elevating dissemination and implementation, both at different stages of clinical science training and in different training settings, and highlighted several experiential training innovations to foster this goal. The project also helped sharpen competing priorities of two broad approaches to intervention science: one emphasizing translation, or moving from basic research to systematic applications in practice, and the other privileging dissemination-implementation per se, where a priority is understanding and maximizing the accessibility, acceptability, adaptability, and sustainability of interventions in the contexts where practitioners deliver them. The training of future clinical scientists will be crucial to reconciling these perspectives on how best to address significant public health problems.
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