NCJ Number
210498
Journal
Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume: 40 Issue: 3/4 Dated: 2005 Pages: 53-70
Date Published
2005
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article uses boot camps as a case study to show how "evidence-based" correctional research has undermined a correctional enterprise fashioned from "common-sense" concepts that disregarded criminological explanations of criminal behavior and how it changes.
Abstract
Boot camps were created under the "common sense" belief that criminal behavior deserves a punitive response commensurate with the harm it has caused and that behavioral change occurs when bad behavior is punished and correct behavior is taught through harsh discipline and a humiliating response to failure. There was a widespread belief that the discipline of military training would transform the immature and wayward into obedient soldiers who would behave responsibly in society after the conditioning of boot camp; however, if advocates of boot camps had examined the research on military service, they would have found that the impact of such service is complex and often contradictory and that the special effects of boot camps have not been distinguished from those of actual military experiences; for example, the job training, guaranteed employment while in the service, and educational benefits after service. Under the weight of multiple evaluations that have revealed the failure of boot camps to produce the envisioned effects, support for them has weakened although they continue to exist. Boot camp advocates now face the prospect of having their "common-sense" support for this program critiqued with empirical evidence of the actual impact of the boot camp model on the subsequent behavior and attitudes of participants. 60 references