Adolescent Females with Limited Delinquency: A Follow-Up on Educational Attainment and Recidivism

Background Research has established a strong relationship between education and later life outcomes, where the connection between different school problems and delinquency have been widely acknowledged. These studies have often sampled male juvenile offenders exhibiting extensive and/or persistent delinquency. Less is known about the educational attainment of female juvenile offenders, especially those who display limited delinquency. In a previous study (Azad and Ginner Hau in Child Youth Serv Rev 95:384-396, 2018), the characteristics of this particular group of offenders were explored where the results showed limited self-reported delinquency but elevated school problems. Objective The present aim was to conduct a follow-up study of the same sample of female adolescents, in order to study their educational attainment during adolescence and the rate of recidivism within 24 months after being sentenced through registry data. Method The sample consisted of adolescent females (N = 144) who were convicted of a crime and sentenced to youth service between 2007 and 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden. Results The results showed that the majority of the females did not reoffend within 2 years after being sentenced. They did, however, display high educational deficits. Their grade point average at the end of both compulsory education and upper secondary school was much lower than that of young females in general, and the majority had either dropped out, never begun or received zero in all subjects at the end of upper secondary school. Conclusions The low school results indicate a need to support young delinquent females' educational attainment in order to improve their overall life chances.