|
Abstract
|
Juvenile awareness is a controversial practice that received much impetus after the showing of the TV documentary "Scared Straight" in 1978-1979. Despite proliferation of such programs nationwide, only a handful of research studies have been conducted. This experimental study on serious delinquent youth who attended a moderately confrontive juvenile awareness program at San Quentin Prison in California, showed an improvement in attitudes for experimentals relative to controls. Behaviorally, however, it was clear that the San Quentin Squires Program did not reduce delinquency overall. The only finding overall in favor of experimentals showed those to be arrest-free longer than controls in the study. Subsample findings suggested that certain types of experimentals improved in behavior or were partially deterred from committing certain types of offenses. Other subsample findings showed certain types of experimentals doing worse behaviorally than their controls. Such inconsistency of findings will require further research before the question of effectiveness of juvenile awareness programs for lower risk youth can be fully determined.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this research conducted by Lewis was to evaluate a program aimed at reducing recidivism of delinquent youth.
METHODOLOGY:
The researcher used an experimental pretest-posttest control group design. The subjects in the sample were 108 males aged 14 to 18 who were residing in treatment centers as a result of their delinquent behavior. The young men were randomly assigned to the experimental (N=53) or control (N=55) group. The experimental intervention involved the youth's participation in the San Quentin Squires Program, a program aimed at reducing recidivism rates of delinquent youth. This program included guided prison tours, interactions with prisoners, a viewing of photographs depicting prison violence, and group "rap sessions" lasting approximately 3 hours. One inmate ("Squire") was matched up with each of the boys in the experimental group for the purpose of giving the youth personal attention. The program required that the boys visit the prison on 3 consecutive Saturdays.
Subjects in both the experimental and control groups were administered a pretest one week prior to the intervention and a posttest one week after the experimental group completed the program. These tests were comprised of several instruments which measured delinquent attitudes and delinquent behavior. Delinquent attitude was assessed through the use of a composite index which combined the scores of four scales: the attitudes toward police scale, attitudes toward school scale, attitudes toward crime scale, and attitudes toward prison scale. Lower scores on the composite index reflected a less delinquent orientation. Another measure included in the pretest/posttest measure of delinquent attitude was a modified Semantic Differential Composite Index which assessed the degree of positive or negative feelings associated with the concepts prison, crime, cell, guard, doing-time, lock-up, and other prisoners. Finally, the Glueck Social Prediction Scale which rated subjects as having varying degrees of "delinquency-proneness" (based on family characteristics) was included in the pretest/posttest measure.
Delinquent behavior was measured by the number and type of charges and arrests each boy faced in the twelve months following the intervention, and the length of time to first rearrest after the intervention. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analyses of variance.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
It was found that youths who had the experimental treatment had significantly less delinquent attitudes toward police and toward crime than did the control group boys. The experimental boys also associated significantly more positive feelings with the concept "guard" than did the control group boys. With respect to delinquent behavior, however, the boys who went through the Squires Program were no different from those who did not. A high number of boys in both groups had charges pressed against them and at least one arrest within 12 months. The only significant difference in delinquent behavior noted by the author was that the boys in the experimental group were out on parole for a longer period of time before being arrested. It was found that moderately delinquent youth appeared to have benefitted from the Squires Program while more seriously delinquent youth may have been worse off for their involvement. The author concluded that seriously delinquent youth cannot be reformed through short-term programs like the Squires Program.
(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)
California
Correctional Institution Program
Prison Visitation
Program Effectiveness
Intervention Program
At Risk Juvenile
At Risk Youth
Juvenile Male
Juvenile Offender
Male Offender
Male Crime
Juvenile Crime
Juvenile Delinquency
Delinquency Intervention
Crime Intervention
Program Evaluation
Prevention Program
Delinquency Prevention
Crime Prevention
Offender Recidivism
Recidivism Prevention
Scared Straight Type Program
Language: en |