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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this paper by Palmer was to present an examination of the role of theory in the development of correctional programs to reduce the incidence of violent juvenile offending.
METHODOLOGY:
The author conducted a non-experimental exploratory investigation of the role of theory in the prevention of juvenile offending, and of two correctional programs that were based upon delinquency theories: the New Pride program and the Violent Juvenile Offender program.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The author noted the increasing use of delinquency causation theories in the foundations of program development, including differential association, cultural deviance, strain and control theories. When combined, these theories emphasize sociological factors in crime causation, and suggest that delinquency can be reduced by providing increased educational and vocational skills and opportunities, and by substituting conventional values and goals for antisocial interactions and beliefs. Two long-term studies, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, were designed to test this view and led to the development of the New Pride and the Violent Juvenile Offender programs. These programs represented a treatment-centered approach, rather than one of surveillance and control, and focused upon activities designed to increase social and educational/vocational skills. The New Pride study, conducted form 1980 to 1984, included individuals (primarily males) who had at least three felony or serious misdemeanor convictions in the previous two years, and examined ten new community-based programs in medium to large cities across the United States. Each community program centered upon alternative schooling, vocational training and job placement, addressing peer influence and emphasizing the building of skills and self-reliance. Despite program integrity and sophisticated evaluative statistical analysis, no differences were found on subsequent recidivism rates between program participants and matched comparison groups in each site. The Violent Juvenile Offender study involved males who had committed a violent offense and who had at least one prior adjudication for a serious felony. In Boston, Memphis, Newark and Detroit subjects were initially placed in secure facilities, and were then reintegrated into the community via use of transitional residences within the community. The basis for this program was an emphasis upon the development of social bonds and the unlearning of delinquent behavior, whilst furthering social competence and skills. This was achieved through job training and placement, education, and assistance with issues concerning peer and family relationships. Whilst participants had significantly fewer arrests than controls in one site, in another this finding was reversed, and the combination of all four sites showed no significant differences between the groups. One of the problems associated with such programs is that policy makers and practitioners have not recognized the extent of most serious offenders' difficulties related to life- and social-skills deficits and to personal conflicts and feelings. As a results, the strength and extent of support and time that is needed to help these individuals is often underestimated. The problem of redirecting potential and motivation is often overlooked, as are each person's feelings, interests and commitments. With the interrelatedness of difficulties such as skill deficits, external pressures and disadvantages, and internal difficulties, short-term programs cannot be expected to produce outstanding results. Whilst these problems exist for all social groups, minorities and those of the lower classes also face social, economic and historical disadvantages which add to the complexity of the problem. Given these factors and the interactions between them, crime-related loyalties seemed to have reasserted themselves even after participation in the New Pride or the Violent Juvenile Offender programs, despite the fact that both programs were well-conceived blends of components that reflected a multicausal approach. This might be due to a neglect of each individual's personal and interpersonal problems, feelings, attitudes and motivations, which could have undermined other accomplishments in the program and could have prevented progress from being consolidated in terms of new priorities and loyalties. Even addressing skills deficits and external pressures might not have been enough to indirectly resolve personal problems and therefore to substantially change delinquent attitudes into conventional ones. By addressing skills deficits, external disadvantages and internal difficulties, a habilitation, or personal and social growth, framework is being employed. The habilitation/developmental perspective adds the third, internal factor as a crucial dimension that has been missing from recent correctional thought and practice. The use of this perspective is not confined to serious offenders, and can be applied to adults as well as to youth, with a focus upon careful examination of the subject of engaging and redirecting motivations. Research could identify general principles, preconditions and motivational strategies as guidelines for practitioners in the field. This habilitation/developmental perspective fits within a framework of developmental/adaptation theory, which posits that the era of adolescence involves two stages: initially, reorientation and an assimilation of social values, followed by self-responsibility and personalization of attitudes and values. In the first phase, adolescents seek to acquire a new set of standards and to participate in a new realm of activities that are different from those known in late childhood, in order to develop a sense of personal status and esteem via a process of redefinition of self. This process often involves confusion and anxiety, withdrawal, restitution of esteem, location of standards and directions, and the testing of these new standards. The second phase of adolescence, involving personalization of values, involves the emergence and delineation of the desired self, differentiations within the new self, and the distribution and merging of the new self into new roles and commitments. Following this stage, early adulthood may involve an individual taking on one of the less positively sanctioned roles in society, including the self-image and activities associated with this role. Many youths, however, will not pass through all three of these phases, but will move more directly into adult activities and roles, which might lead to confusion and a return to delinquency and earlier phases of development. Whilst programs such as the New Pride and the Violent Juvenile Offender programs might promote skills and help break negative peer associations, they do not provide personal assistance to the point of motivating youths to modify or relinquish long- standing anxiety-reducing adjustment patterns and pleasures associated with delinquency.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
The author suggested that it is important to identify which stage of development the individual is experiencing, and which beliefs the person is unwilling to relinquish or modify. Differing stages of psychosocial development might call for different program emphases and goals, and for varying motivational strategies. More individualized diagnosis and intervention is needed for sustained motivational change, including determining offenders' life circumstances and pressures, their types and sources of motivation, their skills, limitations and fears, and their feelings about and relationships with significant others, as well as program opening moves regarding type of placement of offender, program methods and techniques to which the individuals might respond positively and negatively, program timing and priorities and staff roles and needs. Individualized assessment can identify interactions and relationships between various areas, and can then integrate this material into a realistic, relevant intervention plan that would address skills deficits and external and internal difficulties.
EVALUATION:
The author presents an informative and thoughtful discussion of the issue of prevention of serious juvenile offending. He provides a thorough discussion of the problems with recent correctional approaches, and frames possibilities for more successful future prevention in a clear and apparently highly relevant and useful framework. The strength of this paper lies in the excellent and practical recommendations made by the author, based upon this new perspective, for policy planners, practitioners and researchers alike. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Massachusetts
KW - Tennessee
KW - New Jersey
KW - Michigan
KW - Correctional Decision Making
KW - Correctional Institution Program
KW - Juvenile Correctional Institution
KW - Crime Causes
KW - Delinquency Causes
KW - Juvenile Crime
KW - Juvenile Delinquency
KW - Juvenile Inmate
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Violence
KW - Differential Association Theory
KW - Strain Theory
KW - Control Theory
KW - Cultural Deviance
KW - Violence Prevention
KW - Prevention Program
KW - Violence Treatment
KW - Treatment Program
KW - Violence Intervention
KW - Intervention Program
KW - Program Recommendations
KW - Program Effectiveness
KW - Program Development
KW - Juvenile Development
KW - Youth Development
KW - Delinquency Intervention
KW - Delinquency Prevention
KW - Delinquency Treatment
KW - Crime Intervention
KW - Crime Prevention
KW - Crime Treatment
KW - Offender Treatment
KW - Correctional Institution Treatment
KW - Correctional Institution Program
KW - Inmate Treatment
KW - Incarcerated |