UC Irvine News Brief: Elizabeth Cauffman awarded $3.8 million for study of juvenile offenders
Associate professor of psychology & social behavior and education will use funding from the MacArthur Foundation and the federal Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention to determine which youths – in the future – could be diverted from formal processing.
Elizabeth Cauffman, UCI associate professor of psychology & social behavior and education, has received $3.3 million from the MacArthur Foundation and $500,000 from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention to evaluate juvenile offense cases and determine which future offenders to channel into the justice system and which to divert from formal processing. The study will follow 1,200 male offenders between 13 and 16 – with varying degrees of justice system involvement – for 36 months post-arrest. The goal is to develop guidelines for juvenile justice professionals that serve the best interests of the community, taxpayers and delinquent youths. Cauffman’s collaborators on the study are Laurence Steinberg of Temple University and Paul Frick of the University of New Orleans.