NCJ Number
101847
Date Published
1986
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This summary of a report on a series of research projects conducted by the Harvard Law School Center for Criminal Justice focuses on the process and effect of major reforms in the Massachusetts system of youth corrections.
Abstract
Specifically, the research compared the responsiveness of youth to traditional training school regimens and small group therapy approaches and explored the effects of transferring the small group cottage approach to similar community-based programs. The study also examined the impact on recidivism of institutional versus community-based programs and the various opportunities for youths and the integration of youth correctional services in the Boston area. The report conceptualizes social and organizational change in the reform process. The study found that small group therapy structures were more conducive to nonadversarial and rehabilitative relations between staff and juveniles than training school regimens. The small group therapy approach in community-based programs produced less pronounced changes than a closed therapeutic setting, but the changes were more enduring. Recidivism results tend to favor community-based approaches over institutional programs. Overall, research results indicate that delinquency is a community problem that must be resolved through the community's institutionalization of ways to prevent and control delinquency. 3 suggested readings and 3 sources of information.