Delinquency Program - Research Paper Example

Delinquency Program PROGRAM NAME: SCARED STRAIGHT Scared straight is a delinquency program which involves frequent visits to the jails, by the children who are at the risk of turning into a juvenile or juvenile delinquents. The objective of this program is to show such children the harsh environment of the jails. To make them observe that what the prisoners in the jail goes through. They are often allowed to interact with the adult prisoners. The government officials, who are responsible for conducting such program, must first analyze that they are not increasing the chances to harm the mind of such children, which they have promised to protect.[Pet04] This program is designed to deter the juvenile children or the potential juvenile children from turning into criminals. One can say that the children are scared and will think many times before committing a crime. This program is being practiced in many areas of the world. [Hal10] This program has been the target of questioning of various researchers. They wanted to know that by scaring the children with such a program will deter them from criminal activities or increase in the risk of the involvement of the juvenile children into more illicit acts. HISTORY The scared straight program was used throughout the United States of America, to discourage the juvenile children or the one potential juvenile’s children, from committing criminal activities in the future. In this program the children were told harsh stories about the adult prisoners, what sufferings do they go through in the prison. The program consisted of counseling the juvenile children. The interview of the juvenile with the adult prisoner, they are allowed to ask question about the prisoner’s life. The detailed study of this program showed that this juvenile program is not only futile but it is harmful for the children and mostly leaves negative effect on the children’s mind.[Jus11] There was a documentary made, focusing the scared straight program as subject. This documentary was a great success and showed to build a positive image of this program in the minds of its audience. This documentary showed juvenile paying their visit to the adult prisoners in the penitentiary of New Jersey. In this documentary the idea conveyed was that attempting a crime is a matter of choice, it has little to do with social variables too. [Sca81] RESEARCH ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF “SCARED STRAIGHT” A research was conducted by Anthony Petrosino and some other writers at the Campbell Corporation. They studied nine scared straight programs. The finding of this research was that the crime rate was increased up to 26% in the experimental group in comparison to the control group. Similarly Mark Lipesy of Vanderbilt institute of public policy studies analyzed the program. He found that the children or the youth who participated in the deterrence program such as “scared straight” or others, developed greater risk of indulging into legal activities than the youth who belonged to the controlled group. In a report by the U.S. Congress, they reviewed the about 500 crime prevention program and put “scared straight” in the not so effective program for the juvenile youth. But despite of the ineffectiveness of this program, it is still practiced in the United States. [Jus11] Robinson and Slowikowski on the basis of Campbell collaboration’s study proved that the U.S. department of justice does not encourage the use of the “scared straight program” because of its ineffectiveness. Instead of that it uses the program that have been proved effective by the researchers i.e. the mentoring program that helps in creating optimistic thinking in the youth. They said that the reason why the scared straight type programs are still into practiced is because; they are featured by the media in the reality shows and documentaries. After such statements the use of such programs were prohibited in California and Maryland. The juvenile justice and delinquency act of 1974, has strictly prohibited such acts as detaining the children and their meetings with the adult prisoners. Scared straight has widely been popular in the country and has been practiced in many states. The A&E network aired “beyond scared straight”, showed juvenile program (scared straight related) going around the country. The program aired on TV was a hit because of which the program related to “scared straight” gained importance in public. The parents who were troubled because of their child behavior, tried to pressurized their child to participate in such programs. This was because they saw the effectiveness of the “scared straight” type programs on TV which influenced them that this could help their child from deterring from criminal acts. SCARED STRAIGHT IS NOT A COST EFFECTIVE PROGRAM The program scared straight and other relate programs costs a fortune. It costs less than $100 per child. A research conducted by the Washington State Institute showed that when about $80 are spend on such program, in return the tax payers and the crime victims has to pay $14000 while contacting with the juvenile justice system. On the other side the deterring program introduced by the community or families have helped to save about $5000 to $78000 per child, by decreasing the fees of the justice court system and the money given for the care of victims of crime.[TAR11] CONCLUSION DRAWN FROM THE RESEARCH All the evidence and the researches have proved that scared straight is an ineffective program. Instead of decreasing the rate of delinquency in children, it has result in illicit acts. The children participated in such program have shown negative effects. Several researches showed that the children who are exposed to the scared straight or related program showed greater risk of getting indulge in criminal activities that the children who are do not participate in such programs. There were certain laws made after that went against this program for e.g. juveniles were not allowed to enter the adult jail etc. The scared straight programs and related programs are not only ineffective, but the imprint negative effect on the children. It is better to do nothing then to send the juveniles or the potential juvenile in such program. This program has a negative effect on the conduct of the youth, it worsen their behavior in most of the cases. It is better to make the children inolve in other programs than sending them in this one The ineffectiveness of this program has made us think that there should be an interaction between the policy maker and the researcher before making any policy or starting such programs. Mostly it has been seen, that the criminal policies are based on the intuition of the policy maker rather than the findings of the research. Thankfully, there are many other programs that scared straight that helps to deter the juvenile from crime. The researchers have shown their faith in such programs. You can take WATOUT for an instance; this program is being administered in the Snohomish, Washington. This program is for both teenagers and parents. They have to attend a seminar in which they are told that how the teenager can they build their future life without crime. The cost of this program is about $200; this is much cheaper than the cost of “scared straight”. This program reduces the changes of the participants up to 2 percent of not indulging in criminal or illegal acts. REFRENCES Pet04: , (Petrosino, Anthony, Turpin-petrosino, Carolyn Beuler, John, 2004), Hal10: , (Hale, 2010), Jus11: , (Justice Department Discourages the Use of "Scared Straight" Programs, 2011), Sca81: , (“Scared Straight”: Ideology and the media, 1981), TAR11: , (KNAAN, 2011), Read More