%0 Journal Article
%T Juvenile Justice Risk Factors and Functional Family Therapy Fidelity on Felony Recidivism
%A Charles W. Turner
%A Julia L. Blankenship
%A Kristin Winokur Early
%A Lisa R. Weaver
%A Michael S. Robbins
%J Criminal Justice and Behavior
%@ 1552-3594
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0093854818813184
%X Families (n = 5,884) received Functional Family Therapy (FFT) provided as part of court-ordered probation services by 11 community sites throughout Florida. Sites provided home-based FFT to families with male (72%) or female (28%) delinquent youth. Juvenile justice courts referred clients to these services in an effort to redirect them away from incarceration. Clients were Hispanic (18%), Black (41%), and White non-Hispanic (36%), while therapists (female, 79%) were of Hispanic (28%), Black (20%), and White non-Hispanic (50%) ethnic/racial origins. Analyses of clientsĄ¯ pretreatment recidivism risk and therapistĄ¯s caseload of risky clients demonstrated that both individual and treatment site case-mix of client criminal risk levels were associated with higher adjudicated felony recidivism. Furthermore, clinical process indicators suggest that therapists with larger rather than smaller caseloads of high-risk clients provided treatment with greater fidelity. Results suggest that experience in working with challenging clients is critical for achieving fidelity with these cases
%K fidelity
%K client caseload
%K individual risk
%K family therapy
%K clinical process
%K recidivism
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0093854818813184