Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: This study describes the felony arrests of young adults who have left child welfare supervised out of home care. The intent is to determine (1) the rates of felony arrests (2) the types of arrests, and (3) the relationship of arrests to exit type. Method: Sample. The former foster youth sample (1316) was drawn from a longitudinal file of youth who were ages 16-20 on December 31, 1998 and had been in care for more than eight days in a large southern state. Four subgroups emerged (1) the age out of foster care subgroup included youth who had a emancipation termination reason for their last spell (n=841); (2) the reunification subgroup included youth whose final spell ended with an exit reason of termination (n= 278); (3) youth with other planned exits included youth who had a last spell termination reason of guardianship, adoption, and custody with a non-removal parent, relative, or other caregiver (n=125); and (4) youth with an unplanned exit included those who transferred to another agency, ran away, died, or returned to a sending state (n=72). These records were matched to statewide felony arrest data from the Department of Corrections in June 2006. Type of Arrests. Four dominant classifications were identified to categorize the data as personal, property, drug, or public order offense. These were reliably coded by a pair of coders. Youth could have multiple charges. Results: Among those who aged out, 26% had a felony, with 31% of those who were reunified, 28% of those with another planned exit, and 33% of those with a planned exit (n.s.). Among the many (31%) who left early (before age 19) to any exit, the percentage was 31% compared to 13% for the small number (n = 36) who remained in care after age 19 (p < .001). The types of felonies vary by former foster youth exit type. The largest category, overall, was drug offenses (18.3%). The largest groups were those who had reunified (21%) or had an unplanned exit from out of home care (25%). Crimes against other persons were less common (15.0% rate) and were also higher in the reunified and unplanned exit groups (18%) than in the aged out or planned exit groups (14%). Conclusions and Implications: The findings match prior findings, from self-report, that about one-third of former foster youth have been arrested or jailed. The largest group of those with a felony have one related to drug offenses. This rate is lower for those who have exited care in a planned way, other than reunification. The data lend additional support to previous findings that youth who remain in child welfare services for a longer time have better outcomes. Youth who leave out-of-home care to reunification may need services to avoid untoward outcomes related to drug use and arrest.