The juvenile justice community has not reached a consensus on how best to define recidivism with one measure. Therefore, consistent with other studies, this study reports several measures including referral, adjudication, commitment and subsequent juvenile and/or (adult) criminal involvement of youths released from major Department of Juvenile Service (DJS) commitment programs. The majority of youths are 17 years old when released from DJS residential programs. It is, therefore, important to track these youths into the adult system and report the adult recidivism rates following their release from DJS. The Department reports the following nine recidivism measures in three categories.
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Re-referral refers to any subsequent contact that a juvenile has with DJJ intake staff, because of a new referral or alleged charge. Therefore, by definition, a re-referred juvenile has had at least two contacts with DJJ.
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Re-adjudication refers to any juvenile, who is re-referred, has a judiciary hearing and is adjudicated delinquent.
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Re-commitment refers to any juvenile who is re-referred, re-adjudicated, and committed again to the DJS custody for residential placement.
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Arrest refers to any individual, who after contact with the juvenile justice system re-offends and enters the adult criminal justice system.
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Conviction refers to any individual, who is arrested, has a criminal hearing the adult system, and is convicted or found guilty.
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Incarceration refers to any individual who is arrested, convicted, and incarcerated in the adult prison system.
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Re-referral/arrest refers to any subsequent contact a youth has either in the juvenile or adult system.
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Re-adjudication/conviction refers to any youth who has a judiciary hearing and is adjudicated delinquent or is arrested, has a criminal hearing in the adult system and is convicted or found guilty.
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Re-commitment/incarceration refers to any juvenile who is committed again to DJS custody for placement or is arrested, convicted, and incarcerated in the adult system.
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 In this category, the Department of Juvenile Services counts recidivists only once, even if a youth has offended in both systems.
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