Types of Eligible Offenses

Innovative or experimental programs in the criminal and juvenile justice systems usually begin by screening potential clients and accepting those considered safe, that is, those who are more tractable and more likely to respond to treatment. Later, as skill and confidence are gained, programs tend to move "upscale" and begin accepting more serious clients. This apparently is true for the Nation's restitution programs, as survey data indicate that the percentage of programs that accept serious offenders is increasing. For example, the 1986 RESTTA survey showed that only 30 percent of the juvenile restitution programs accepted cases involving rape (Schneider and Warner, 1989, p. 5); the 1991 survey shows that 55 percent of juvenile programs now accept such cases. Similar increases are seen for all other offenses for which comparable data exist, including theft (88 percent in 1986 to 98.2 percent in 1991); armed robbery (43 percent to 62.8 percent), and aggravated assault (64 percent to 83.5 percent). Table 11 displays the percentages of programs that accept cases involving particular offenses, as well as the average number of such cases among their referrals.

Several aspects of table 11 are striking. First, all programs are more likely to accept clients with less serious offenses than more serious offenses, and the less serious offenses are represented in greater numbers; this is as expected. Second, juvenile programs are more likely to accept serious offenses such as murder, rape, robbery, and assault than adult programs; the major exceptions are cases involving drugs. This reflects, most likely, the history of Federal involvement in juvenile restitution programming. Programs funded by the OJJDP restitution initiative were required to accept adjudicated offenders only and, moreover, were instructed to use restitution as an alternative to incarceration (OJJDP, 1977). As a result, these programs quickly gained experience in dealing with more serious offenders and offenses. It also is interesting to note that while status offenses are eligible in only 82 percent of the juvenile-only programs and in 90 percent of the programs that accept both adults and juveniles, status offenders make up a large percentage of total cases. For adult programs, the largest number of cases involve drunk driving.