A Prospective Examination of Juvenile Probation Involvement Among Children with Child Protective Services Involvement

Background: Among young people who have contact with Child Protective Services (CPS), between 7% and 30% also have contact with the juvenile justice system. The proportion of overlap varies depending on the timeframe and level of CPS involvement. The present study builds on prior research that did not capture complete childhood CPS involvement or focused on a portion of all CPS investigations to examine how the risk of dual system involvement varies across demographics and levels of system involvement.

Methods: Los Angeles County (LAC) CPS records and juvenile probation records were used to assess demographic characteristics, CPS experiences, and juvenile system contact. To better characterize young people with dual system involvement and describe system involvement a cohort of young people born in 1998 involved with CPS was identified (N=57,456). These young people were linked to juvenile probation records and followed prospectively through their 18th birthday (in 2016) to document dual system contact. Differences between young people with a juvenile justice petition (dual system) and those without (CPS-only) were examined using χ2 and t-tests. Generalized linear models showed the relative risk of dual system involvement by age 18 by demographic and CPS characteristics.

Results: Overall, 5% of young people who had contact with CPS experienced a subsequent probation petition (n = 2,859). GLM 1 showed that among young people with CPS involvement, boys were 2.4 times as likely as girls to have dual system contact. Black youth were 3 times as likely as White youth to have dual system contact. Those placed in foster care were about twice as likely as a young person with only a CPS investigation to have dual system involvement. Significant interactions were identified between gender and level of CPS involvement, so the model was stratified by gender. GLM 2 shows that boys placed in foster care were nearly twice as likely as boys with only a CPS investigation to have dual system involvement. GLM 3 documents that girls who were placed in foster care were about 3 times as likely as girls with only a CPS investigation to have dual system involvement. The average age of first CPS contact occurred at older ages for young people with dual system involvement compared with young people with CPS involvement only. The difference was statistically significant for young people who experienced investigations, t(37,696) = -3.017, p < .01; cases, t(6,496) = -2.680, p < .01; or foster care placements, t(7,645) = -7.106, p < .001.

Conclusion: Longitudinal CPS records for young people with CPS-only and dual system involvement show both groups had CPS involvement in early childhood, yet, young people with dual system involvement were older at first CPS intervention and were more likely to have more frequent CPS involvement compared with young people with CPS-only involvement. The risk of dual system involvement varied significantly across the racial and ethnic groups and by gender, suggesting policies and procedures for young people with dual system involvement should be evaluated for their effectiveness by subpopulations.