Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Gregory Campbell

Abstract

The goal of youth diversion programs includes reducing recidivism while granting opportunities for youth to refocus their paths. Although juvenile probation officers' role is vital to supervised probation in youth diversion programs, the problem is that there is a lack of literature that assesses the success of the factors of mentoring, education, and mental health treatment that directly connect youth with social services. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of juvenile probation officers on the success factors of youth diversion programs as they relate to mentoring, education, and mental health treatment. Becker's labeling theory was used to address the lack of research and to understand juvenile delinquency within the justice system targets both formal theorizing and informal assumptions. The goal was to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the juvenile probation officers' population in mentoring-based diversion resources and explore their voices to improve program effectiveness. All 10 participants were current supervisors of youth offenders in a Midwestern state who completed a semi structured interview on mentoring, education, mental health, and challenges. Using a combination approach of inductive and deductive coding, the findings of the study were that the factors are the most successful when they are addressed in tandem and when the juvenile has adequate family support. This study may contribute to positive social change by reducing incarceration and recidivism while enhancing the success factors that lead youth when re-entering society post probation.

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