Judging Amenability to Treatment in Juvenile Offenders: Theory and Practice (From Children, Mental Health, and the Law, P 195-210, 1984, N Dickon Reppucci, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-109808)

• NCJ Number: 109812
• Author(s): E P Mulvey
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): MH-15201-04
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Amendability to treatment judgments are made at a number of different points during juvenile case processing, including diversion, transfer, and disposition.

Abstract

This clinical judgment is a difficult one as little is really known about what treatment will work with a given juvenile offender. In addition, such determinations are made in a context in which social control is intertwined and often confused with treatment, and they involve ethical considerations about public safety and juvenile rights. While the identification of juveniles likely to benefit from treatment is basic to juvenile justice and provides an attractive compromise between retribution and rehabilitation, the determination involves basically discretionary decisions, often by a variety of actors and for different objectives, that are influenced by a variety of variables such as the treatments available, the characteristics of the juvenile, and the theory of delinquency and treatment held by the decisionmaker. While there has been research to develop typologies of delinquency and on delinquent-treatment matching, such research is still in its infancy, and amenability-to-treatment decisions remain discretionary, relying partially on objective base rate information and partially on contextual factors. 1 note and 73 references.