Not sure about youth

Within the past decade, California juvenile arrests and incarcerations, teen pregnancies, and youths living below poverty level have all seen a decrease in number, while high school graduation rates have increased. There have also been five major initiatives that have affected probation departments in California during this same time. However, RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment (ISE), in research requested by the Chief Probation Officers of California for a "review of the potential effect of this 'sea change' on youth," could not attribute these positive trends to the initiatives. The initiatives are:

• Title IV-A-EA. Funding associated with the Emergency Assistance (EA) program of Title IV-A of the Social Security Act allowed probation departments to add services aimed at reducing juvenile crime, such as case management services, gang intervention programs, and parenting skills training. 1996.
• Juvenile Crime Enforcement and Accountability Challenge Grant Program...as a major effort to determine what approaches were effective in reducing juvenile crime. 1996.
• Repeat Offender Prevention Program (ROPP). 1994.
• Comprehensive Youth Services Act (CYSA)...to fund juvenile probation services. 1997.
• Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act (JJCPA)...to provide a stable funding source to counties for programs that have been proven effective in curbing crime among at-risk youths and young offenders. 2000.

RAND does say that although there are no "firm conclusions regarding the effect of initiatives on outcomes, we note the temporal proximity between initiatives and outcomes that might suggest how the initiatives affected youths and their families."

Accomplishments in Juvenile Probation in California Over the Last Decade
(available in PDF, 0.3 MB, from RAND)

Juvenile Probation Initiatives in California and Their Effects - research brief
(available in PDF, 0.1 MB, from RAND)