Arrests Among Emotionally Disturbed Violent and Assaultive Individuals Following Minimal Versus Lengthy Intervention Through North Carolina's Willie M Program

Time to first arrest after termination of Willie M Program services was compared in 2 groups of former clients. All Ss had met program criteria and "aged out" after their 18th birthday, but the two groups differed in duration and extent of intervention received: (a) A short-certification group ( n = 21), because they turned 18 near the 1981 program start date, had received Willie M services for a mean of only 26 days (all cases < 3 months); (b) a long-certification group ( n = 147) averaged 896 days in the program (all cases > 1 year). The groups did not differ significantly in gender or race; geographic region; IQ; diagnosis according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd. ed. (DSM-III, American Psychiatric Association, 1980 ); or age at earliest antisocial acts. A survival analysis compared the short and long groups on proportion avoiding arrest as a function of time since aging out. The long group showed slightly better arrest survival, but survival curves for the 2 groups did not differ reliably. Thus the program was not found to significantly reduce the risk of young adult arrests.