NCJ Number
91423
Date Published
1983
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This presentation reports on a study of 11 community-based programs for serious juvenile offenders, with attention to defining the serious juvenile offender, program philosophy, control mechanisms, program typology, and treatment strategies.
Abstract
The study consisted of a process analysis of the programs. Concerning definitions of serious juvenile offenders, these varied across jurisdictions, as they depended on a locale's view of the severity of a juvenile offense. The repetitiveness of offending was included in all the admission criteria, however. The clients generally did not include chronically violent juvenile offenders, since most of these were sent to secure facilities. The central theme in the philosophies of the programs was the development in clients of the skills and values required to live normatively in the community. The programs were generally typed as residential and nonresidential. The nonresidential programs exerted control over clients through tight scheduling of program activities, intensive supervision, and intensive tracking of clients while they were away from program facilities. Most programs structured stages of development that involved increasing levels of responsibility and freedom that reinforced behavior patterns that facilitate reintegration into the community. Residential programs provided either a therapeutic milieu that emphasized intensive reorientation and reconstruction of the individual or socialization through role modeling and education. Nonresidential programs usually included family therapy and parenting education. The community-based programs for serious juvenile offenders appear to offer more creative alternatives for effective reintegration than do institutional programs.