The Effects of Family Counseling on the Treatment of Juvenile Status Offenders of the Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court

The present study was conducted as a service to ~e Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, to determine if the family counseling service administered by the Diversion Department, could significantly reduce the recidivism rate among juvenile status offenders (JSOs). A retrospective design was employed in order to examine the records of 74 JSOs, who came in contact with the Intake Department of the Norfolk Juvenile Court in 1978. The recidivism rate was recorded, and data analyzed from a two year intervention period. Ss consisted of 37 JSOs who received family counseling (experimental group), and 37 JSOs who did not receive the counseling service (control group). It was hypothesized that the recidivism rate would significantly decrease for those JSOs who received family counseling . The results .indicated a significantly difference between treatment and control groups. In addition, a significant difference was demonstrated between white males in both treatment and control groups