The Western Criminologist

Fall 2000

The Official Newsletter of the Western Society of Criminology

The first program, the Repeat Offender Prevention Program (ROPP), is an early intervention program using a model developed by the Orange County Probation Department. Based on prior research indicating that a small proportion of youth commit the majority of crimes in which juveniles are involved, ROPP targets individuals exhibiting the factors previously highlighted in the literature as putting them at-risk for chronic juvenile offending.

The second project, Breaking Cycles, has two parts. The prevention component seeks to prevent delinquency through assessment in the community and service provision matching assessed needs. The graduated sanctions portion endeavors to prevent further criminality by holding juvenile offenders accountable for their actions. The executive summary from the most recent report regarding this evaluation is included in this newsletter. These evaluations are grounded in the spirit of WSC because the research team and program staff members work together in a collaborative relationship. Program personnel participate in defining outcome measures, assist with data collection, and meet to discuss research findings, and apply these findings for program improvement. These projects have been the most rewarding of my career.

I am involved in a number of other projects at SANDAG focusing on victimization, domestic violence, homelessness, and girls. Other than my work interests, I am a mother of two. My son will be three in October and my daughter was born on January 1, 2000. Balancing work, family, and volunteer pursuits can be challenging and I try to integrate family whenever possible. Ask any WSC board member about how I lead meetings with an infant in tow. My favorite leisure activity is racing sailboats, in fact that is how my husband and I met.

Our Vice President, Paul Brantingham, is a professor of criminology and the director of the Crime Prevention Analysis Laboratory at Simon Fraser University. Originally from California, he studied at Columbia University in New York and Cambridge University in England and has been a member of the California bar since 1969. Paul started teaching criminology at Florida State 30 years ago and Simon Fraser in British Columbia in 1977. During the mid 1980's he was the director of Special Reviews at the Public Service Commission of Canada. His principal research interests are in environmental criminology and crime prevention. Paul has also done a lot of work on legal aid systems, and recently been involved in a major project in China working through the United Nation's International Center for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy. He is a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute.

Marilyn Brown, a member of the nominations committee, is in the doctoral program at the University of Hawaii in sociology with an emphasis in criminology. Her dissertation focuses on female offenders, who are parents, in the justice system. She is interviewing women in drug court and a second group in a local women's prison. This fall she is teaching her first course in corrections. When asked to share her favorite aspect of WSC, she highlights the fact that students can hold important positions within the organization. As a student, she served as the facilities chair last year and this year she is serving a second term on the nominations committee. Marilyn recently took a break from work and lived in Japan for six months.

Another member of the nominations committee, Janet R. Johnston, is an associate professor in the Administration of Justice Department, San Jose State University and was formerly consulting associate professor at Stanford University (1986-1994). A native born Australian, Jan pursued her undergraduate work at the University of Queensland and her graduate work at the University of Michigan and Stanford University as a clinical social worker and sociologist. During the past two decades, she has specialized in counseling and mediation with high-conflict, violent and custody-litigating families. In the process of working with hundreds of these couples, she has undertaken a series of studies.

The first examined 80 families from which the impasse model of intervention was developed. A second study examined ninety separating and divorced families where domestic violence was the theme. Policy guidelines for custody and access was one product of this study; and model interventions with children of highly conflictual and violent families was another. A third study of 100 families identified risk factors for parental abduction of children, and developed and evaluated preventive interventions. A fourth study of about 200 families was collaboratively undertaken with Family Court Services of Alameda and Los Angeles Conciliation Courts to evaluate and compare group mediation and education for high conflict families. Her current research involves providing group counseling programs within schools and other neighborhood settings for children who have experienced violent home and neighborhood environments.

Deborah Plechner, the chair of the Book Exhibit Committee for the upcoming conference (and former student representative), is currently a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of California, Riverside. Her areas of interest are criminology, law, and social inequality. She is now working on her dissertation, which examines the consequences of the increasing use of residential placement for juvenile offenders. This project builds on her role as part of the evaluation team for a local Challenge Grant II project aimed at increasing placement success for "hard-to-place" youth. With the support of the Presley Center, Deborah has been involved in the Western Society of Criminology as a student. She has benefited from the association's unique combination of professional diversity and a welcoming atmosphere that encourages interaction and learning among its members.

Charles Tracy "retired" from higher education two years ago, after teaching, researching, and administering in justice-related programs for the past 32 years. He is currently professor emeritus at Portland State University, still teaching at least one class a quarter, and more involved than he thought he would be in two programsadministration of justice and conflict resolution. He has been active in WSC since 1979, serving as president (1985) and vice-president (1984), editor of the Western Criminologist (1983-85), and a member of the executive board (1983-1988)and currently in the second year of a three-year term as an executive counselor. He and his partner, Clarice Bailey, are cochairing the program committee for the 2001 Conference in Portland.

In his senior years, he has come to realize the injustice of many of the programs with which he has been associated over the past yearsincluding the nine years with the San Jose Police Department in the 1950s and 60s. Preparing students to enter a system that is mostly oppressive, and seeks power and control rather than justice, has been replaced for him by efforts to promote the concepts and practices of restorative justice. He has developed and teaches courses in restorative justice and social justice, and is an active volunteer victim-offender and family mediator. He also uses his position on the board of directors of the Oregon Mediation Association to educate the public about the use of mediation as a peaceful method to resolve conflict. Life is good and there is still a great deal of important work to be done!

Our newsletter editor, Miki Vohryzek-Bolden is the Director of Graduate Academic Programs at California State University, Sacramento, professor in the criminal justice division, and gourmet cook! Currently, she has a research contract with the Commission on Correctional Peace Officer Standards and Training (CPOST) to provide a comprehensive picture of in-service and on-the-job training for adult and juvenile correctional peace officers in California. It involves looking at all of the training currently offered and interviewing the training officers in California Department of Corrections (CDC) and California Youth Authority (CYA). The project also includes a survey of correctional peace officers (including counselors, medical technical assistants, firefighters, etc) regarding their perceptions of the quality and usefulness of the training they received. Miki's book with two coauthors, "Domestic Terrorism and Incident Management: Issues and Tactics" should be published next year by Charles C. Thomas Publishing. The Community College Journal recently published one of her articles entitled "Training Future Faculty." When asked to summarize her life perspective, Miki says, "I am trying to enjoy my children and maintain a balanced, happy life!"

John Berecochea, one of the Executive Counselors on the board, started life as the son of a farm laborer and "housewife" and knew from a very young age that they were not viable occupations for him. He confirmed his lack of skills and interest in the former, as a teenager working the crops in the summer. He does do housework, including cooking, well, but he does not get paid for that. Professionally, John wound up being a university certified criminologist and the chief researcher for the California Department of Corrections. In between, he worked as a field agent in family welfare, a "junior research technician" for the California Highway Patrol, and a research manager for the California Department of Corrections. Subsequently, he had his own research firm, specializing in corrections, and worked on several research grants at the University of California, Berkeley. After that, a few years in the Office of AIDS, in the California Department of Health, taught him about the totally different perspective that public health has on the people it tries to help. Since returning to the Department of Corrections as the chief researcher, he has formed a research team that has had a significant influence on correctional programming in prison and parole. Like many applied researchers, he has some publications in academic journals, but most of his work appears in organizational reports, memorandums and conversations with policy makers. Sometimes, he wishes that he was just a researcher, in his own office, analyzing data , to his heart's content, but he likes being the spokesperson for research in the Department too much to give it up. On the other hand, retirement will lure him into yet another world, probably in a couple of years.

Kim Rossmo is the Detective Inspector in charge of the Vancouver Police Department's Geographic Profiling Section. Over the course of his 20 year policing career he has worked assignments in organized crime intelligence, emergency response, patrol, crime prevention, and community liaison. He holds a Ph.D. in criminology and has researched and published in the areas of policing, offender profiling, and environmental criminology. His book, Geographic Profiling, was published by CRC Press in 2000. Kim is an Executive Counselor and a Fellow of the Western Society of Criminology. He is also a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Advisory Committee for Police Investigative Operations, and an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University.

Darlaane Hoctor Mulmat, Vice President

Criminal Justice Research Division

San Diego Association of Governments

This report describes an innovative juvenile delinquency prevention and intervention program in the San Diego region: Breaking Cycles. Findings from the process and impact evaluation are summarized based upon data collected during the first three years of program operation.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The San Diego County Probation Department started the Breaking Cycles program in July 1997. Program implementation followed a lengthy planning process. Individuals representing the community (i.e., line staff, managers, and policy makers from diverse agencies and interests) worked together to identify the needs of children and families in the San Diego region, as well as develop strategies for addressing these needs. Inspired by nationally recognized research indicating that youthful offending is best addressed through prevention and programs that hold young people accountable for their actions, these key community leaders developed a long-term plan: the San Diego Comprehensive Strategy for Youth, Family, and Community. To facilitate implementation of this plan, the San Diego County Probation Department successfully completed and received a Challenge grant through the California Board of Corrections (BOC) to establish the Breaking Cycles program. The philosophy of the program is that the needs of children and families are best met within the community (i.e., neighborhood) by linking programs and expanding and enhancing existing services. Therefore, the majority of grant funding, administered by the probation department, has been contracted to community-based agencies for service provision.

This multi-agency, geographically diverse project is designed to prevent youth from becoming delinquent by focusing prevention programs on at-risk youth and their families and improving the juvenile justice and community response to juvenile offenders through a system of graduated sanctions.

Prevention

The Community Assessment Teams (CATs) target youth exhibiting high-risk behaviors (e.g., poor school attendance, truancy, runaway behavior, substance abuse, aggression, etc.) prior to entry into the juvenile justice system. The goals of the prevention component are to reduce the number of youth entering the justice system by supporting and empowering families to access and receive community resources in a timely fashion. Law enforcement, schools, health centers, and other service providers refer youth and families to CAT. There are five CAT centers in the county, serving all geographical areas. The multi-disciplinary teams (i.e., case manager, probation officer, and other experts) assess the strengths and needs of the youth and family, develop a case plan building on strengths to address needs, and collaborate with other agencies in service provision. Through this process, CAT provides services that previously did not occur, or were provided by school staff or the police. With the CAT program, both school and police personnel can focus on other responsibilities.

Graduated Sanctions

By directly linking behavior and consequences rather than ignoring less serious delinquency until more serious violations occur, the graduated sanctions component seeks to reduce delinquency. This link is achieved through in-depth assessment of underlying factors contributing to delinquent behavior, utilization of interventions within the offender's neighborhood to address these factors, and careful monitoring. Compliance results in reduced sanctions, while intervention is escalated for noncompliance.

Research Design

The evaluation design reflects the comprehensiveness of the project by addressing both the prevention portion and the graduated sanctions component of the program, as well as the impact of the project over time on systemwide indicators that reflect the well being of youth. The evolution of this collaborative project is documented through the process evaluation.

A matched comparison group design examines the impact of the prevention component. Cases referred to CAT are compared to a matched group of youth handled informally by probation. The groups are matched on behavior issues, as revealed through the referral reason, and demographic characteristics. Cases counseled and closed or under informal supervision by probation serve as the comparison group. The sample selection period for the comparison group and the experimental group is January through April 1999. The types of information being collected include the following:

• services received during program participation
• risk factors prior to and following program assignment
• criminal history one year prior to and one year following program assignment.

A retrospective quasi-experimental design is used to evaluate

the impact of the graduated sanctions component. A random

sample of cases assigned to probation prior to the initiation

of Breaking Cycles (i.e., during the first four months of 1995 and 1997) serves as the comparison group. The experimental sample has been randomly chosen from cases assigned from probation caseloads during the same time period in 1999, after Breaking Cycles was implemented. A distinct advantage of using the historical sample is that, for the first time, the San Diego Probation Department has data on case processing as well as juvenile recidivism. For both the graduated sanctions and prevention components, the experimental and comparison groups will be compared with respect to case characteristics, service delivery, and behavior (e.g., school performance, criminal activity, etc.), including the common data elements designated by the BOC. Behavior one year prior to program assignment will be compared to the activity one year following program participation to examine the impact of program participation.

A program effort of this magnitude requires that the evaluation also be comprehensive and systemwide to determine the extent to which the program impacts overall indicators. For this reason, the evaluation of Breaking Cycles includes monitoring of a number of regional indicators within a comparison period that starts before the advent of the program and continues through the five-year span for which the project has been funded.

The use of alcohol and other drugs by youth is examined through self-reported information. The results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey may show reductions in the abuse of alcohol and other drugs by juveniles. Urinalysis results, based upon the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program, may reveal decreases in juveniles testing positive for drug use. Fewer youth admitted to drug treatment programs may suggest a decline in juvenile drug use, while increases may result from efforts to expand capacity and utilization. Arrests of juveniles for alcohol- and drug-related offenses are also expected to decrease.

With respect to delinquency and involvement with the juvenile justice system, Breaking Cycles is expected to reduce the number of crimes committed by juveniles, as measured by arrests and referrals to probation. Fewer youth should be entering the system, based upon juvenile hall admissions, petitions filed, and out-of-county placements. However, the swift and certain sanctions for violations used to increase youth accountability for their behavior may increase some types of system referrals (e.g., probation violations). Risk factors and system dispositions, as revealed through the risk inventory administered by probation officers following adjudication, may also change.

In addition, it is important to monitor the progress of a program through a process evaluation. Data for the process evaluation include information gained by research staff through a variety of methods. The research team attends project meetings (e.g., monthly Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council (JJCC) meetings, meetings with probation staff responsible for program implementation, and twice-monthly meetings with the CAT staff). JJCC members and service providers have been surveyed on three occasions during the course of the project. Outreach efforts, staffing, and staff training have also been tabulated for the prevention component. In addition, each site collects data regarding client characteristics and service delivery. They enter the data into a common database by the staff at each CAT site. The data files are transferred to SANDAG on a monthly basis. Customer input regarding CAT is gathered through self-administered surveys upon program entry and exit.

CLIENTS SERVED BY THE PREVENTION COMPONENT

The goal of the Community Assessment Team (CAT) program, the prevention component of Breaking Cycles, is to prevent youth from becoming delinquent by focusing prevention programs on at-risk youth and their families through community centers in neighborhoods. The teams provide direct services and link clients to social supports in the community.

To date (through June 30, 2000), the program has served 5,242 clients. Although the entire family is served, a client is defined as an at-risk youth in the community. To provide more accurate information with respect to the number of clients being served and the amount of work being performed, in October 1999, sites began to document the number of clients per case. Based upon the data available at this time, average client family size is estimated at 3.6 and, based upon this estimate, the CAT program has served 18,871 individuals to date.

The CAT program is achieving many goals based upon findings thus far. The types of clients served by the CAT sites reflect the population surrounding each site with respect to ethnicity and problem issues. The services available through the CAT program are becoming widely known, as evidenced through the variety of groups referring cases to the sites. The largest proportion of referrals is from schools (32%) and law enforcement (20%). Since CAT provides services that previously did not occur, or were provided by the schools or law enforcement, school and police personnel seem to be using the program so that they can focus on other responsibilities.

CAT services provided on-site, as well as through outside community agencies, are broad in scope. Multiple services are provided to each client, following an assessment of needs, which generally takes place in the clients' homes. The majority of clients have successfully completed their case management plans and are either in school or employed upon program completion. However, the program is less successful with clients referred to CAT due to runaway behavior or family violence. Preliminary analysis of data for CAT clients shows that these issues more likely involve girls than boys. Significant resources are being utilized to match all clients referred to CAT with appropriate services based upon their individual needs. Finally, the vast majority of clients have not entered the juvenile justice system during program participation. The next section describes the impact of CAT based upon data collected for CAT clients, as well as a matched comparison group.

Results from the CAT Impact Assessment

The data collection effort regarding the impact assessment has just begun. Missing data has hampered the ability to elucidate the impact of CAT relative to a comparison group. The research team will endeavor to develop additional innovative methods for capturing this information. Preliminary findings show that the experimental and comparison groups are comparable upon program assignment. The experimental group received a higher level of service delivery within the community (i.e., from service providers rather than probation staff). There was not any significant change in risk factors at the end of the intervention period, with the exception of alcohol use. Lack of continued contact with individuals in both samples resulted in limited data for the follow-up period. Very few cases in both groups engaged in criminal activity as measured by referrals to probation. These factors suggest that different outcome measures may be more appropriate for this population. Ideas for new outcome measures will be developed with project staff. Given the insufficient data for the follow-up period to show outcomes, it is premature to make conclusions regarding the impact of CAT. Therefore, the data are not presented in this report. After rectifying these issues, future reports will include data from this impact assessment.

Opinions from CAT Customers

As part of the program evaluation, youth and parents served by the CAT program are asked to complete a brief self-administered survey upon program entry and at exit to obtain their perspective over time about knowledge of services, program success, changes in family dynamics, and program satisfaction.

Surveys are available in both Spanish and English and have been customized to reflect unique aspects of each CAT site. Administration of the surveys began on February 3, 1999. Survey topics include: clients' knowledge of community resources and frequency of use, school enrollment and interest, juvenile employment, peer influence and deviant behavior, family dynamics, and program satisfaction. The following findings are based upon surveys completed through June 30, 2000.

Participation in the CAT program seems to be improving awareness of community resources. Parents noticed improvements in family communication. Positive changes in peer groups also seem to be occurring based upon responses to the exit survey. In addition, high levels of satisfaction with services received through the program were reported by both juveniles and their parents.

For future reports, the data will be merged with demographic information contained in the database. The sample of clients completing customer surveys will be compared to all clients served by the CAT program to determine the representation based upon demographic variables. Further, school participation will be examined based upon date of program assignment.

STAFFING LEVELS, TRAINING, AND OUTREACH

In addition to documenting client characteristics and service delivery for the prevention component (previously discussed), each CAT is responsible for documenting staffing needs and issues, staff training received, and outreach conducted to inform the community about services and resources the team has to offer. Based upon these data, it seems that, overall, each site participated in a wide variety of outreach efforts, maintained sufficient staff for community service provision, and conducted training to keep their staff informed and educated on current issues.

Outreach

Outreach efforts included both personal and non-personal efforts. CAT members met with community agencies and representatives and provided information in written and oral presentations. Each CAT participated in several collaboratives within the community local to each site. These groups meet to discuss how efforts of schools, probation, the business community, law enforcement, and other agencies can be combined to provide more cost-effective, efficient, and accessible services to youth and families in the community.

Staffing

Each site maintained at least one coordinator, probation officer, and two case managers, as well as clerical support and/or volunteers. Although every team experienced some staff turnover, positions were filled as quickly as possible. Several sites increased their bilingual staff positions to meet the needs of the community. As additional funding was identified and accessed, several agencies expanded to include additional staff. Volunteers were utilized to assist with paperwork and phone responsibilities, as well as tasks specific to each site.

Training

Training was consistently provided to CAT staff and volunteers. This consistency assisted each site in staying up-to-date on community needs, available services, and innovative approaches for addressing the needs of clients within the community.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF THE GRADUATED SANCTIONS COMPONENT

The impact assessment of the graduated sanctions component of Breaking Cycles is a critical feature of the program because it represents a new way for handling juvenile offenders that offers alternative sanctions and swift and certain consequences. The research literature on juvenile delinquency has documented that an approach that holds youthful offenders accountable for misbehavior and also addresses their problems, such as drug abuse, is likely to be effective in reducing recidivism and encouraging healthy and productive behavior. Implementing this philosophy requires constant monitoring and supervision, and involvement with families through a multi-disciplined approach.

This report describes the impact of probation supervision prior to the implementation of Breaking Cycles (i.e., the baseline). Data collection does not occur until one year has passed following completion of probation to determine if re-offending occurs. Also, the data collection process takes place through examination of information contained in manual files, with review averaging from one to three hours per case. Therefore, data for the experimental group (cases assigned to the program during January through June 1999) will not be available until the end of the year 2000.

Prior to the implementation of Breaking Cycles, youth assigned to probation supervision were most likely to be male and represent a variety of ethnic groups. Prior to disposition, the majority lived with at least one natural parent (75%) and siblings (80%), with about one-third utilizing public assistance (34%). Over two-fifths had a history of abuse or neglect (42%) and more than one-half were involved with gangs (59%). Most had a prior history of delinquency: 76 percent had at least one prior referral to probation from a law enforcement agency, about one-half had a sustained petition (51%), and over one-half of those with a sustained petition served time in custody (57%).

Some positive changes were observed after probation supervision. Alcohol and other drug use declined; school enrollment increased; school behavior problems, as measured by suspensions and expulsions, dropped; school attendance rose; and criminal activity, based upon sustained petitions, decreased. However, the types of delinquency escalated. Of those with sustained petitions following probation supervision, a greater percentage involved violence following the intervention than during the prior period. In addition, institutional commitments were imposed in a larger proportion of cases during the follow-up period.

The results of this data collection effort for the graduated sanctions component will be more meaningful when the comparison groups are compared to the 1999 sample of youth served by the Breaking Cycles program.

SYSTEMWIDE INDICATORS OF JUVENILE BEHAVIOR

Since the Breaking Cycles project encompasses the entire county and targets both at-risk youth and juvenile offenders, the expectation is that, over time, there will be systematic changes in indicators that reflect the well being of youth. For this reason, the evaluation includes monitoring a number of indicators within a comparison period that starts before the advent of Breaking Cycles and continues through the four-year span for which the project has been funded. The following data elements reflect areas of concern that administrators of the Breaking Cycles program expect to impact with their interventions: alcohol and other drug use, as well as juvenile violence and other delinquency.

Though review of the various indicators reveals mixed results over time, positive changes seem to be occurring overall with respect to numbers of youth coming into the system and the severity of the offenses they are committing.

Alcohol and Other Drug Use

Self-reported school survey data show declining alcohol and other drug use. Juvenile arrests for illegal drugs have also decreased, but alcohol-related offenses are on the rise. Admissions to drug treatment have increased substantially as a result of the juvenile drug court and increased treatment capacity. Urinalysis results from a sample of youth admitted to juvenile hall show increasing marijuana and methamphetamine use.

Juvenile Violence and Other Delinquency

Based upon the number and rate of juveniles arrested, overall figures are declining. Felony-level arrests have dropped in particular. While the number of youth booked into juvenile hall has increased, the rise is due to more arrests for probation violations, the result of swift and certain punishments used to ensure offender accountability. The risk inventory conducted upon adjudication suggests that youth are not entering the system at earlier ages. The issues targeted by Breaking Cycles continue for this population: substance abuse, school problems, and lack of parental control. The proportion of youth with a prior arrest history, petitions filed, and prior institutional commitment has increased. However, the proportion of petitions involving probation violations has increased significantly over time, another indicator of offender accountability.

Community Awareness and Collaboration

For a program to have regional impact, it is important for the program to have high visibility and have services geographically dispersed throughout the region. Further, the philosophy of the program suggests that a single agency, alone, cannot be expected to address the issues of at-risk children and families (e.g., substance abuse, mental health, family violence, school problems, unemployment, etc.). The collaborative nature of Breaking Cycles requires the involvement of several agencies and departments representing community-based agencies, the criminal justice system, social services, mental health, and alcohol and drug treatment. The level of interaction, coordination, and cooperation required is relatively new and challenging given a historical single issue, single agency focus.

To examine the evolution of the collaborative approach and the visibility of Breaking Cycles, a survey was sent to service providers throughout the community. Survey questions address awareness of the Breaking Cycles program, perceptions and opinions of project progress, expectations for program outcomes, issues felt to be barriers to implementation, staff training issues, information-sharing protocols, case management procedures, roles, missions, and philosophies. This section presents a comparison of the responses from the three surveys that were distributed in 1997, 1998, and 1999.

In October 1997, 43 surveys were received following a mail-out of 125, for a 34 percent response rate. Similarly, a 33 percent response rate was received from a second survey distributed in December 1998, when 260 surveys were mailed to service providers and 87 completed surveys were returned to SANDAG. The larger distribution in 1998 was due to the inclusion of service providers participating in the project through the prevention component, which became operational in early 1998. The response rate for the third and final survey dropped to 20 percent (53 surveys returned from the same 260 service providers).

Results from the most recent survey in 1999 show a high level of awareness regarding the Breaking Cycles philosophy, illustrating the effectiveness of community outreach efforts. More than two-thirds of the 1999 respondents (69%) believe intervention is the goal of the Breaking Cycles program. These findings suggest that as the goals of Breaking Cycles become more widely known among service providers, respondents may believe intervention efforts are the most important goal.

Survey results show a positive change in collaborative efforts within the local community. This success is measured by the increase in the proportion of respondents indicating that they frequently share similar goals for case outcomes with almost all county and community agencies. Another measure is the increase in the percentage of service providers sharing a memorandum of understanding with social services and drug and alcohol services. In addition, in both 1999 and 1998, compared to 1997 responses, the survey participants were less likely to cite problems or obstacles to collaborative efforts. The proportion of respondents sharing common goals or outcomes with probation rose to 80 percent in 1999 from 33 percent in 1997 and 51 percent in 1998. This finding may be the result of increased collaboration with probation in preventing delinquency through the CAT program.

The 1999 and 1998 surveys included additional questions compared to the 1997 version in order to examine knowledge regarding the CAT approach of Breaking Cycles, which began after the administration of the first survey. Overall, awareness of the CAT component, the goals of the program, and the services that are available to the families in the community increased between the two years. In addition, over one-half of the service providers surveyed refer families to a CAT and over one-quarter of the respondents receive CAT referrals, demonstrating that this knowledge is being used.

Overall, the survey results indicate that the process necessary for collaboration is evolving in a positive manner. A solid infrastructure serves as a foundation for successful program outcomes. Mangers of the Breaking Cycles project should continue to focus on issues related to collaboration. In the most recent survey, over one-half of those surveyed shared a need to clarify roles and responsibilities, resolve confidentiality issues, and improve staff training.

Recipients of the 2000 June Morrison Scholarship Fund - In Their Own Words

· Justin Galt, fourth-year graduate student in the sociology program at the University of California, Riverside had this to say in making his request for the scholarship:

I attended the WSC conference in Oakland last year, presented a paper on capitalism in corrections, worked the book exhibit for four hours, and attended all the luncheons and dinner provided by the conference. Last year, I also attended several other criminology and sociology conferences and with all honesty, I have to say that I enjoyed the WSC conference the most. I liked how it was small enough that I could meet most of the participants, and the meals provided also gave me opportunities to break bread with people that I would not have ever spoken to at the larger conferences. The other advantage that the WSC provides is that it is ideal for graduate students like me who want to eventually teach and conduct research in criminology on the West Coast - I get to meet professors at many western schools.

· Carrie Blades, graduate student in sociology, California State University, Sacramento stated the following in making her request for the scholarship:

I am looking forward to presenting my paper at the WSC conference. I feel the chance to share my work with fellow students, professionals and academicians in the field is an opportunity to expand my awareness and develop my skills. I believe that cooperation and coordination within any field is of primary importance to its continued viability, especially in light o the diversity of current society. I anticipate meeting and sharing ideas with other members of the WSC that ultimately may be beneficial to our respective work in the field of criminology. This WSC conference affords just such an opportunity for myself as well as other attendees.

· Mara E. Libuser, graduate student in social psychology, University of California, San Diego sends her appreciation:

The June Morrison Scholarship helped me to attend my first WSC conference in five years, my first out-of-town conference, and my first conference in which I gave a presentation. I was very fortunate to have participated this year because of the informal and relaxed atmosphere of the Hawaii conference, putting my nerves at ease before my first presentation. I would not have had this perfect opportunity if it weren't for the June Morrison Scholarship which helped pay for the expenses of going to this conference.

· Mariah Fillers, graduate student at California State University, Long Beach also sends her appreciation:

I would like to graciously thank all of those who support the June Morrison Scholarship Fund. The scholarship enabled me to defray some of the conference costs that in turn afforded me the opportunity to attend and present at the Western Society of Criminology meeting. My sincerest thanks to those who donate to this fund and those who support its existence.