This meta-analysis examines the official recidivism effects of two types of community sanctions in youth justice, namely community service and behavioural intervention programmes. Two analyses were conducted: a comparison between the effects of community sanctions and custodial sanctions, versus a comparison between the effects of community sanctions and dismissals. Following a systematic literature search, data extraction and analysis, mean effect sizes were calculated utilizing (log) odds ratio as the main effect measure. To explore heterogeneity, a meta-regression was conducted with four moderator variables: methodological rigour, referral stage, main focus of sanction and sample risk level. The hypotheses were that recidivism would be significantly lower for delinquent youth subject to community sanctions compared with those subject to custodial sanctions, but that differences in recidivism between delinquent youth subject to community sanctions versus dismissals would be insignificant. In total, 23 studies were deemed eligible for inclusion (Ncust = 7, Ndism = 16). Final results were in favour of the hypotheses, namely, significantly lower recidivism rates for community sanctions compared with custodial sanctions, and no significant differences for community sanctions compared with dismissals. For both comparisons, the 95% confidence interval indicated the effects varied from just below zero to substantially in favour of community sanctions. Finally, moderator analysis revealed that studies of lower methodological quality and mixed referral stages were more likely to report larger effect sizes.

该元分析检查了两种类型的社区制裁在青年司法中的官方累犯效应，即社区服务和行为干预计划。进行了两项分析：比较社区制裁和监禁制裁的影响，以及比较社区制裁和解雇的影响。在系统的文献搜索、数据提取和分析之后，使用（对数）优势比作为主要效应量度来计算平均效应量。为了探索异质性，对四个调节变量进行了元回归：方法学严谨性、转诊阶段、制裁的主要重点和样本风险水平。假设是，与受到拘留制裁的青少年相比，受到社区制裁的违法青年的再犯率会显着降低，但受到社区制裁的违法青少年与被解雇的违法青少年之间的再犯率差异将微不足道。总共有 23 项研究被认为符合纳入条件（N cust = 7，N dism = 16）。最终结果支持假设，即与监禁制裁相比，社区制裁的累犯率显着降低，社区制裁与解雇相比没有显着差异。对于这两种比较，95% 的置信区间表明效果从略低于零到大体上有利于社区制裁。最后，主持人分析显示，方法学质量较低和混合转诊阶段的研究更有可能报告更大的效应量。