Listening to Juvenile Offenders: Can Residential Treatment Prevent Recidivism?
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Listening to Juvenile Offenders: Can Residential Treatment Prevent Recidivism?
Laura S. Abrams ABSTRACT: This paper explores clients’ perspectives on their treatment in two different residential correctional facilities for juvenile male offenders. Although a wealth of literature has investigated risk factors for recidivism, little is known about how youth offenders experience the treatment or deterrence aspects of institutional confinement. Through an ethnographic study of two correctional facilities and in-depth interviews with 19 young men, the author provides a rich description of how youth offenders understand their time in residential care and examines how these programs influence offenders’ motivations to desist from crime. The principles derived from this study will provide critical information for social workers and researchers seeking to enhance the effectiveness and quality of institutional care for male juvenile offenders. KEY WORDS: Juvenile offenders; Correctional Institutions; Clients’ Experience of Treatment; Ethnography.
Youth crime is a pressing social concern for social workers, policy makers, and the general public. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, over 2.4 million juveniles were arrested nationwide in 2000, and on any given day, over 125,000 Laura S. Abrams is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Welfare, School of Public Policy and Social Research at the University of California, Los Angeles. This project was sponsored by the Lois and Samuel Silberman Fund and the University of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station. The author wishes to thank Ben Anderson, Kyoungho Kim, Jemel Aguilar, and Anne Gordon for their assistance with this project. Address correspondence to Laura S. Abrams, Department of Social Welfare, UCLA School of Public Affairs, 3250 Pub Pol. Bldg., Box 951656, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656, USA; e-mail: [email protected] 61
2005 Springer ScienceþBusiness Media, Inc.
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CHILD AND ADOLESCENT SOCIAL WORK JOURNAL
convicted youth offenders resided in out-of-home care (Sickmund & Wan, 2002). Numerous public and private residential correctional programs across the county have been established to treat youth offenders whose severity of offense or number of prior convictions warrants an out-of-home placement. These programs range from therapeutic interventions to punitive correctional systems and often use a blend of behavior change strategies (Palmer, 1991; Schoenwald, Ward, Henggeler, Pickrel & Patel, 1996). Unfortunately, evaluation research consistently demonstrates that these costly residential programs are largely ineffective, as indicated by high re-offense and re-conviction rates (Greenwood, 1996; Jenson & Howard, 1998; Lipsey, 1992; Office of the Legislative Auditor, 1995). However, this focus on outcomes does not account for the complexity of significant behavior change, particularly for adolescents ensconced in criminal lifestyles and identities (Abrams & Aguilar, 2005). Moreover scant research has investigated the st
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