What works for delinquency? The effectiveness of interventions for teenage offending behaviour

Over the past 20 years there has been an increase in research into the causes of delinquency and the outcomes of different forms of intervention. In this article the recent criminological and psychiatric outcome literature is reviewed. In contrast with other reviews, its focus is on psychosocial interventions for delinquency in addition to responses by the youth justice system. Computer and hand searches of the criminological and psychiatric literature were carried out to find studies of the effectiveness of interventions for delinquency. Studies were included that met minimal research criteria, usually in the form of a comparison or control condition and sample sizes large enough to achieve statistical significance. The findings of recent reviews and meta-analytic studies into the effectiveness of interventions are analysed and the most significant individual studies are described and evaluated. The results are summarized and discussed with a view to their implications for research and practice.