Factors associated with completion and non-completion of family work with justice-involved young people and their families

There is evidence that completion of criminal justice interventions, including family interventions, is an important factor in efforts to reduce reoffending amongst young people, with completers generally having better outcomes, including lower recidivism rates and non-completers having poorer outcomes. Knowledge about what contributes to program completion may help to improve completion rates and, in turn, outcomes for young people and their families. This article reports on a family work intervention offered to young people under the supervision of youth justice and their families in New South Wales, Australia. Completers had significantly lower recidivism rates than non-completers. Several factors relating to completion were identified, including where the family work was undertaken, the age of the young person, program fidelity, and the presence of two adults in the family-work sessions.