Yoshikazu Yuma

We evaluated effectiveness of recommendations by the Juvenile Classification Homes (JCH) in Japan. Of all the rehabilitative treatments, we focused on the two major programs, training school and probation. We examined the relative effectiveness of the recommended treatments to the not-recommended ones, using the inconsistency between the recommendation by the JCH and the disposition by the family courts. We measured effectiveness by the times elapsed from release to reincarceration in the JCH. Cox' proportional Hazards models were applied to the data of the juvenile delinquents incarcerated to the JCH at the first time in 1991 (N=6,272). We found that, for the delinquents recommended to be sent to the training schools, those who were sent to the training schools were likely to incarcerated later to the JCH than those placed on probation but that, for those who recommended to be placed on probation, we could not examine the effectiveness because almost all of them were disposed to be placed on probation.