A Two-State Examination of Varied Measurement Strategies for Juvenile Reoffending, Florida and Oregon, 2012-2017

Past research indicates that there is wide variation in the measurement of juvenile recidivism across state juvenile justice systems. As such, concerns have been raised that cross-agency differences in the definition and measurement of juvenile recidivism may hamper the generalizability of knowledge as well as comparisons across jurisdictions. Yet it is unclear whether measurement choices do impact the conclusions of studies of juvenile recidivism. These data were collected to answer questions about the impact of measurement variation on the rates and predictors of juvenile recidivism. The first sample included 104,354 unique spells of Florida Department of Juvenile Justice supervision, including 48,616 diversion spells, 43,799 probation spells, and 11,939 residential commitment spells that ended between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2016. The second sample used data from the Oregon Youth authority and featured 2,743 unique spells of supervision, including 1,616 probation spells and 1,127 parole spells that ended between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2016. The data include a variety of operationalizations of juvenile recidivism that vary in terms of the type of system contact captured, the follow-up length used, and whether the measure includes adult criminal justice system information. The data also include information on youths' demographic characteristics, delinquency history, and risk and protective factors. Contextual data from the American Community Survey and Uniform Crime Reports are also included.