title: Multiple Service System Involvement and Later Offending Behavior: Implications for Prevention and Early Intervention.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated patterns of childhood and adolescent experiences that correspond to later justice system entry, including persistence into adulthood, and explored whether timing of potential supports to the child or onset of family poverty, according to developmental periods and gender, would distinguish among latent classes.
  
  
  METHODS
  We constructed a database containing records for 8587 youths from a Midwestern metropolitan region, born between 1982 and 1991, with outcomes. We used data from multiple publicly funded systems (child welfare, income maintenance, juvenile and criminal justice, mental health, Medicaid, vital statistics). We applied a latent class analysis and interpreted a 7-class model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Classes with higher rates of offending persisting into adulthood were characterized by involvement with multiple publicly funded systems in childhood and adolescence, with the exception of 1 less-urban, predominantly female class that had similarly high system involvement coupled with lower rates of offending.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Poverty and maltreatment appear to play a critical role in offending trajectories. Identifying risk factors that cluster together may help program and intervention staff best target those most in need of more intensive intervention.
authors.affiliation: Charlotte Lyn Bright is with the School of Social Work, University of Maryland, Baltimore. Melissa Jonson-Reid is with the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO.
authors.forename: Charlotte Lyn
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Bright
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jonson-Reid
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003416:Criminal Law / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015146:Midwestern United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data