The Educational Deficiencies of Florida's Juvenile Justice Students

• Other Authors: Wang, Xia (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Children
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-1268

The prior literature addressing delinquency and education while diverse consistently documents the relationship between poor school performance and delinquent behavior. However, the specific causes for the poor school performance of delinquent youth remain ambiguous at best. Stated differently, we do not know precisely why delinquent youth perform poorly in school. This paper addresses this question by examining the differences in educational deficiencies between delinquent youth and a matched sample of non-delinquent youth. The findings document that delinquent youth are more likely to have lower GPAs, poorer attendance records, more likely to be retained in the same grade, and receive more disciplinary actions while in school. Moreover, delinquent youth are found to be disproportionately diagnosed as ESE, namely 44% of the delinquent sample compared to only 12% of the non-delinquent comparison group. The paper closes with discussion of the policy implication of these findings particularly in relation to remedying these identified educational deficiencies in the attempt to alter the life course of delinquent youth. === A Thesis Submitted to the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. === Summer Semester, 2003. === June 24, 2003. === Juvenile Justice Students, Educational Deficiencies === Includes bibliographical references. === Spencer D. Li, Professor Directing Thesis; Thomas G. Blomberg, Committee Member; Gordon Waldo, Committee Member.