Study Design

1,216 young men are enrolled in the Crossroads study. More details about our sampling procedure are available here.

Regular interviews are conducted to track developmental changes in several outcome variables.  More details about our data collection procedure are available here.

Data collection includes:

• Baseline interviews, which were completed within 6 weeks of the youth’s disposition for his first arrest
• Follow-up interviews, which were completed every 6 months for the first 3 years, 4 years after baseline, 5 years after baseline, 7 years after baseline, and 9 years after baseline
• Official arrest records

The Crossroads Study has also inspired several ancillary studies, which would not have been possible otherwise.

For more information about study methodology, see two recent publications:

Crossroads in juvenile justice: The impact of initial processing decision on youth 5 years after first arrest (Cauffman et al., 2021)

Trajectories of offending over 9 years after youths’ first arrest: What predicts who desists and who continues to offend? (Cauffman et al., 2024)