NCJ Number
80531
Journal
Journal of Social Issues Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Dated: (1981) Pages: 133-144
Date Published
1981
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Literature dealing with the impact of deinstitutionalization on families is reviewed.
Abstract
The emphasis on the deinstitutionalization of juvenile offenders has not only led to the development of smaller nonsecure community-based facilities, but also to increased efforts at keeping children in their own homes. Data available on family intervention are inconsistent about whether it decreases recidivism, and almost no information is provided on the effects of the programs on the youths or their families. All of the studies, both those that show positive results from family intervention and those that do not, give inadequate attention to how the programs were implemented with family members, how families perceived and responded to the programs, which family members were included, and the kinds of families that did and did not benefit from the programs. Some possible negative effects of keeping the problem youth at home and involving family members in treatment are the labeling as deviant not only of the youth but other family members, so that the family as a unit and the individual family members experience a loss of self esteem and a sense of social failure that spawns alienation from normative social interaction; scapegoating of the problem youth by other family members; and widening of the social net to include siblings of the problem youth in intervention efforts. Future research should focus on the possible negative effects of intervention oriented toward the family. Twenty-one references are listed.