The Juvenile Justice System was established on the premise of rehabilitative action for behaviors that have led youth to the criminal justice system. However, the system has increasingly moved away from this original concept toward a punitive model. The authors present how this movement resulted in the devolution of human rights for the youth…

California's state youth correctional system, the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), is violent, isolated, and lacks accountability. Fights and riots are a part of daily life and create a culture of fear. DJJ's violent conditions are concealed by an absence of state oversight and the facilities' long distances from youths' families and…

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is prevalent in youth involved in delinquency, but it is often not effectively treated. A randomized clinical trial was conducted comparing the outcomes of an emotion regulation therapy (Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy, or TARGET) with a relational supportive therapy (Enhanced…

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral approach in changing the behavioral and cognitive skills of incarcerated girls participating in a substance abuse treatment program. A repeated measures design was used. The findings of this study revealed that the behaviors (i.e., self-monitoring,…

Recent studies analyzing juvenile delinquents participating in wilderness therapy programs have reported little statistical effectiveness. Interpretation of these findings may be unjustified due to definitional confusion more than a clear examination of program effectiveness. Using a research methodology similar to Jones, Lowe, and Risler (2004),…

This report focuses on future directions in behavioral school-based interventions with delinquents. It begins by reviewing the theoretical relevance of school-focused interventions in delinquency prevention/intervention efforts and the behavioral school-based delinquency prevention/intervention programs reported in the literature to date. It looks…

One approach to student behavior that may be particularly useful in exclusionary settings is school-wide positive behavior supports (PBS). Increasingly, evidence shows that PBS is an effective approach to student behavior in regular public schools (Sugai & Horner, 2005). While the data on behavioral systems in exclusionary schools are…

Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers (LIFT), a prevention program designed for delivery to children and parents within the elementary school setting, is described. Components include classroom-based child social and problem skills training, playground-based behavior modification, and group-delivered parent training. Successful results of…

The Teaching Family program is one of the most extensively researched models for residential care. A major meta-analysis found that the Teaching Family Model (TFM) was one of the five most consistently effective treatments for delinquents. However, two recent publications imply that behaviorally based and/or group treatments might be harmful.…

This paper evaluates the experimental evidence regarding the relationship between parental supervision and offspring delinquency with the view of suggesting that greater emphasis be placed on the role of parental supervision as a means of reducing delinquent behavior in potentially delinquent families; high supervision is associated with low…

School-wide positive behavioral support (PBS) emphasizes the importance of using proactive strategies for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviors. Positive behavior support is increasingly being used to create positive school environments. While numerous public schools have successfully adopted a PBS model, minimal…

Disruptive and delinquent girls are not well served by the mental health and juvenile justice systems. Interventions that have been developed for the behavior problems of boys are frequently applied to girls despite growing evidence for a female-specific phenotype, developmental course, and set of risk factors from middle childhood onwards. The…

We examined the immediate, short- and long-term effectiveness of the SNAP[TM] Under 12 Outreach Project (ORP)--a community-based program for children under the age of 12 at risk of having police contact. Sixteen pairs of children were matched on age, sex and severity of delinquency at admission, and randomly assigned to the ORP or to a control…

Commonality analysis was used as part of an evaluation of the Preparation through Responsive Educational Programs (PREP), a project based on behavior modification for disruptive, poorly achieving, and potentially delinquent urban junior high school students. The objectives of this study were to understand how the program affected certain academic…

Compared results of a cognitive-behavioral program employing relaxation training, cognitive training in problem solving, self-statement modification, and behavior rehearsal techniques to results from a control group in a program modifying impulsive behavior in adolescent youthful offenders. The program successfully modified overt antisocial…