The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of leadership behaviors on youth specialist turnover in juvenile detention facilities. Youth specialist turnover causes financial burdens, staff shortages, and places incarcerated youth at risk for abuse (Minor et al., 2010). This quantitative study used a non-probability convenience sample of the superintendents and assistant superintendents of 37 juvenile detention centers in Ohio. In this study, the leadership behaviors of these juvenile detention leaders were self identified as possessing transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant leadership attributes using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Leader form 5X short. Two additional questions were included in the survey that measured youth specialist turnover rates for their respective detention centers. No statistically significant relationship existed between self identified leadership behaviors and youth specialist turnover. However, the safety of children confined in a detention center is dependent on the retention of quality youth specialists (Carter, 2014).