Evaluation of a Juvenile Diversion Program

The evaluation of a juvenile diversion program was approached through the development of multiple lines of evidence bearing on each of the two major program goals: providing a community-based alternative for arrested juveniles who otherwise would have been referred to the juvenile justice system and reducing juvenile delinquency. Convergent results from various measures, research designs, and data stratifications indicated that the program had little success in decreasing referrals to the juvenile justice system but produced a positive delinquency reduction effect (concentrated among less serious offenders). These results are discussed in terms of (1) their significance for the diversion program and (2) the nature of the multiple methodology that produced them.