Hanging on to the Pendulum - Juvenile Corrections Move Into the '80s (From American Correctional Association Proceedings, August 16-20, 1981, P 27-34, 1982, Julie N Tucker, ed. - See NCJ-85341)

• NCJ Number: 85344
• Author(s): V L Agee
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: American Correctional Association; National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Available on microfiche as NCJ-85341

Annotation

Persons who have experience working with juveniles should no longer be tyrannized by legal, psychological, and criminological theorists who insist upon determining policy unrelated to the reality with which those on the front line deal, and they should fight to assume and retain control of their own programs.

Abstract

Those who have worked for years with juvenile delinquents know that there is no exact science that can inform staff how to work with each person. The Division of Youth Services in Denver, Colo. has learned, however, that behavioral change in serious juvenile offenders is most likely to occur when these offenders are confronted with the consequences of their behavior for their victims and made to assume responsibility for what they have done to others. This can be done through confrontation therapy and through the influence of peer culture. The daily living structure for such offenders should provide unwelcome consequences for those whose behavior violates the rights and safety of others. The pendulum in corrections has swung toward giving offenders protection for their rights to the extreme while giving little attention to how offenders can be brought to control their own behavior in respect for the rights of others. Further, the emphasis on voluntary treatment makes little sense, because criminal offenders rarely accept that they are the ones who need to change. It is time for the professionals who work daily with offenders to control policy according to what they have learned.