Chapter 15 

SOME SENSIBLE SOLUTIONS  

q     Thinking “out of the box”

q     Involves changing perceptions

q     Burden always falls onto youth – they are the people who have to change, not adults

q       Labels need to change, as Miller suggests

q     Reclaiming Youth at Risk is an example 

Reclaiming Youth at Risk  

n      Based upon Native American culture

n      Need to have “reclaiming environments” which have the following features:

n      experience of belonging in a supportive community

n      meeting a person's needs for “mastery” 

n      involve youth in determining their own future, while at the same time recognizing the need to control harmful behavior

n      expecting young people to be givers  

Ecological hazards  

n      destructive relationships

n      causes feelings of rejection, the inability to trust, and of being unloved

n      climates of futility

n      resulting in feelings of inadequacy and fear of failure

n      learned irresponsibility

n      as seen in the youth whose sense of powerlessness may be masked by indifference or defiant, rebelliousness

n      loss of purpose

n      self-centered youth, desperately searching for meaning in a world of confusing values 

Climates of Futility  

n      negative attitudes and pessimism so many have toward difficult youth

n      pessimism is common in our approaches to “difficult youth.”  

Negative “school climates”  

n      negative expectations

n      breed futility in both students and staff

n      Note example from movie “Stand and Deliver”

n      punitiveness

n      teachers need to respond to their most difficult students like a doctor would find a challenge in solving a difficult case

n      Boredom

n      Kids need some sense of adventure  

n      Irresponsibility

n      Horace Mann said that education is an “apprenticeship in responsibility” but nowadays too many youths are demanding to be used in some demanding task

Changing Attitudes 

n      We need a change in our own attitudes and values toward youth.

n      Our negative thoughts are often associated with negative feelings and actions. 

n      If one thinks in negative terms these may in turn produces negative actions and feelings.

n      Our thoughts guide our feelings which in turn provide motivations and directions to our behavior. 

n      If we think hate, we tend to feel hate and in turn act in hateful ways.  We become what we think and feel.

 Negative Labels 

n      Negative labels that we assign to a child can be easily generalized to the child as a person

n      former head of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention said the mission of his office and the nation is to make these “predators” accountable, thereby creating a blanket condemnation of all difficult youth.

n      August Aichorn (a pioneer in working with youth) said that delinquents were merely “wayward youth” needing guidance and direction

 Tyranny of obedience  

n      The consistent strategy has been to control all deviations by punishing or excluding those who violate the rules.

n      For centuries schools have used elaborate codes of regulations to attempt to instill compliant behavior.

n      When faced with Native Americans, European conquerors “were dumb-founded that obedience was not part of the Indian culture” and they often concluded that these Indians must have some sort of defect.

n      teaching obedience does not teach responsibility

n      If rules are imposed by external sanctions, children will follow them as long as policed. W

n      When out of the range of surveillance, anything goes.

n      “To change the culture we have to change our culture. Law enforcement has to realize these kids have potential.   Maybe if we can change the way we talk to them we can help them realize dreams they don't even know they have” (deputy sheriff in Los Angeles)  

Radical Non-Intervention  

n      Originally came from sociologist Edwin Schur way back in the early 1970s

n      Basic thesis is: “leave kids alone wherever possible”

n      “A traditional response to this situation has been to assume that the system merely needs improvement.  Hence the calls for more and better facilities, increasingly experimental studies and elaborate ‘cost-benefit’ and ‘systems analyses’.”  

Schur’s general proposals  

n      “There is a need for a thorough reassessment of the dominant ways of thinking about youth ‘problems’.”

n      We pay a huge price, he charged, for criminalizing normal adolescent behavior.

n      “Some of the most valuable policies for dealing with delinquency are not necessarily those designated as delinquency policies.”

n      Focus on inequality, for instance

n      “We must take young people more seriously if we are to eradicate injustice to juveniles.”

n      many young people lack a sound attachment to conventional society (Social bond theory)

n      “The juvenile justice system should concern itself less with the problems of so-called ‘delinquents’, and more with dispensing justice.”

n      Schur was talking specifically about narrowing the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, specifically over “status offenses.”

n      “As juvenile justice moves in new directions, a variety of approaches will continue to be useful.”

n      Schur specifically suggests such approaches as prevention programs that have a “collective or community focus,” plus programs that are voluntary and non-institutional in nature and programs that use “indigenous personnel,” to name just a few.

n      One example of this is DDAP (see below) 

Assessing Schur’s ideas 

n      We continue to criminalize normal adolescent behavior or behavior that should be dealt with informally, outside of the formal juvenile justice system.

n      Why criminalize truancy?

n      Certainly, kids should stay in school, for an education is a prerequisite for a decent life. 

n      Why use the immense power of the state to make kids stay in school?  

Detention Diversion Advocacy Project (DDAP) 

n      Disposition case advocacy, which is based upon “case management”

n      Case management seeks to achieve two major outcomes:

n      the integration of services across a cluster of organizations

n      continuity of care

n      In other words: develop a network of human services that integrates the development of client skills and the involvement of different social networks and multiple service providers 

The DDAP program involves two primary components  

n      Detention Advocacy

n      identifying youth likely to be detained pending their adjudication and once a potential client is identified, DDAP case managers present a release plan to the judge.

n      Case Management

n      link youths to community-based services and closely monitor their progress. 

n      services are “field-oriented,” requiring the case manager to have daily contact with the youth, his or her family, and significant others.

 The “Deep End” 

n      The youths selected are those deemed to be “high risk” in terms of their chance of engaging in subsequent criminal activity

n      The target population is those whose risk assessment scores indicate that they would ordinarily be detained.

n      This is the “deep-end” approach

n      Once a potential client is evaluated, DDAP staff presents a comprehensive community service plan at the detention hearing and requests that the judge release the youth to DDAP custody. 

Evaluation 

n      The evaluation consisted of comparing a group of youths referred to DDAP with a similarly matched control group that remained within the juvenile justice system. 

n      The results showed that after a three-year follow-up, the recidivism rate for the DDAP group was 34 percent, compared to a 60 percent rate for the control group.

n      Detailed comparisons holding several variables constant (e.g., prior record, race, age, gender, etc.) and examining several different measures of recidivism (e.g., subsequent commitments, referrals for violent offenses) showed that the DDAP youths still had a significantly lower recidivism rate.

 Why is DDAP Successful? 

n      Low case loads

n      it is a true “alternative” rather than one of many bureaucratic extensions of the system

n      Physical location of DDAP is “user friendly” and lacks the usual “macho” appearance of the formal system.

n      Ability to “nip in the bud” potential problems 

Components of Successful Programs 

n      avoid denial of a problem

n      programs should target medium‑ to high‑risk youths

n      offer alternatives to involvement in delinquent acts

n      Conduct programs within the community with a special focus on families and schools

n      Well-trained staff with empathy

n      link with the world of work

n      Specific goals with an award at the end

n      Treatment is continuous and there should be relapse‑prevention techniques