Alternative Education for Behaviorally Disordered Youths: A Promise Yet Unfulfilled

• NCJ Number: 110955
• Journal: Behavioral Disorders Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Dated: (February 1986) Pages: 98-108
• Author(s): J F Mesinger
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual convention of the American Society for Criminology, Denver, Colorado, November 1983.

Annotation

This literature review focuses on some current treatment needs and services available to adolescents who are too emotionally disturbed or behaviorally disordered to be educated in mainstream settings.

Abstract

It notes that over a third of incarcerated delinquents are handicapped, needing special education treatment and that parallel trends to deinstitutionalize delinquents and develop alternatives to public school for behaviorally disordered youths are putting some individuals from each category in the same alternative settings. Moreover, several other stress-inducing societal trends are likely to increase the number of these youths. Also, the state of research in the field is poor, lacking in long-term evaluations. The belief that new prosocial behaviors infused by short-term treatments will persist without subsequent changed social psychological support for clients is likely to be chimerical. About 85 references. (Author abstract modified)