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How the penal system creates criminals


Torsten

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090808/hl_time/08599191483700

Bad Crowd: Why Juvenile Detention Makes Teens Worse

By MAIA SZALAVITZ Maia Szalavitz Fri Aug 7, 8:10 pm ET

Parents have always warned teenagers against falling in with the wrong crowd, those kids they consider bad influences. Now a new study of juvenile detention in Montreal adds to the evidence that Mom and Dad may have a point.

Researchers found that rather than rehabilitating young delinquents, juvenile detention - which lumps troubled kids in with other troubled kids - appeared to worsen their behavior problems. Compared with other kids with a similar history of bad behavior, those who entered the juvenile-justice system were nearly seven times more likely to be arrested for crimes as adults. Further, those who ended up being sentenced to juvenile prison were 37 times more likely to be arrested again as adults, compared with similarly misbehaved kids who were either not caught or not put into the system. (Read "Getting the Juvenile-Justice System to Grow Up.")

"It's much worse than we would have expected," says Richard Tremblay, a psychology professor at the University of Montreal and a co-author of the study, which was published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. "By having them live together, they form relationships. It's more likely to increase the problem."

The 20-year study followed 779 low-income youth in Montreal with annual interviews from age 10 to age 17, then tracked their arrest records in adulthood. Researchers also interviewed the teenagers' parents, schoolmates and teachers. The study accounted for variables such as family income, single-parent-home status and earlier behavior problems (such as hyperactivity) that are known to affect delinquency risk. (See pictures of crime in Middle America.)

Kids who entered the juvenile-justice system even briefly - for example, being sentenced to community service or other penance, with limited exposure to other troubled kids - were twice as likely to be arrested as adults, compared with kids with the same behavior problems who remained outside the system. Being put on probation, which involves more contact with misbehaving peers, in counseling groups or even in waiting rooms at probation offices, raised teens' odds of adult arrest by a factor of 14.

The rehabilitation of troubled teens has long been a contentious issue, pitting the individual needs of problem children and families against a system that does not typically give social workers adequate tools or resources to help. Often, the treatment of difficult or drug-using teens occurs en masse - in residential homes, for example - but instead of scaring kids straight, the group experience tends to glamorize delinquency and drug use. (Read "Teens Behaving Badly?")

Why? In any such setting, teens establish a predictable social hierarchy, says Tom Dishion, director of research at the Child and Family Center at the University of Oregon, who was not involved with the study. The kids who have behaved worse than others - committing robbery, for instance, vs. smoking cigarettes - earn the most credibility with their peer group, which encourages further bad behavior. "That story [about robbing someone] has a function of making that kid more interesting. He or she gets a lot of attention. [These kids] become higher in the social hierarchy."

Says Tremblay: "There is that competition of who is going to do the worst stuff - for them, it's the best stuff - like stealing the biggest or best car."

Past research has also shown that peer exposure can worsen behavior. In a 1995 study conducted by Dishion involving 158 high-risk families in Oregon, researchers compared the impact on teens' behavior of four interventions: parenting groups focused on effective discipline, social-skills-training groups for teens, both the parent- and teen-focused group interventions, or no group treatment at all. Overall, the parent-focused group was most effective, leading to reductions in teen smoking and misbehavior at school. The teen-focused group, by contrast, significantly increased participants' rate of aggressive behavior and smoking; in the combination group, kids showed no improvement, presumably because the exposure to other teens canceled out the positive effect of the parents.

The new study supports these findings, suggesting that family therapy or one-on-one counseling - or any intervention that doesn't aggregate troubled teens - is safer and more likely to be effective than group activities. But if groups must be used, experts say that high supervision and low child-to-staff ratios are essential to minimize the risk of behavior contagion.

"I think it's a very important finding, and it's consistent with other research in the last 10 years on this topic," says Dishion. "What's really surprising is that we don't have more research showing this to be true. Almost everyone you tell about these findings who has worked in [residential or juvenile-justice settings] is not surprised. I think there's a tacit agreement not to look too carefully."

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Thanks Torsten - great read.. This is something I am very passionate about..

I have spent a little time in an maximum security facility for adults and I learned an awful lot about 'criminals'.. I gave guitar lessons for a little while - for free, in the yard - for anyone who wanted it, and I noticed something profound. They lapped up positive feedback like nothing else.. If I could just find one positive thing to mention about their playing or if I highlighted that they had an untapped talent - they would absolutely light up. These people are so starved of positive attention it is amazing.. Starving being the operative word!

If I had of stayed longer - I would have ended up with half the wing as my students. Mind you though - I was not in a stable enough frame of mind to be able to give that energy against all of that negative resistance 24/7 and it would have come to a head eventually I am sure..

I think as a society we need to reevaluate the goals of our justice system (well legal system - the word justice has been soiled, and lost, which is part of the problem). The way I see it - we have drifted so far from the goals, the system has almost become completely self serving.. If the intention is to improve society as a whole - to lessen harmful acts against others - we need a long term strategy.. At the moment we amplify the problem in order to serve some primitive need for instant gratification. As long as the criminal is suffering, they are happy.. well almost.. they seem more angry than happy to me to be honest, and it seems the level of suffering is never enough anyway..

I am going to say something pretty controversial (so watch out!! ) - I personally believe that any of us - given the same environment, circumstances, biology - would be just as easily one of the monsters we so quickly despise and label as 'inhuman' so we don't have to feel empathy.. My point is that they are human, they are us, and we could have been them if the dice rolled a different number.. I would even go as far to say we could all be the worst of criminals even with our current biology, with just the right circumstances and environment..

Don't get me wrong.. I do also believe we are more than the sum of our parts..

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Absolutely pel, couldn't agree more.

It's a long shot, but the day when we can undertake things like psychedelic psychotherapy for alcohol and other substance or non-substance related bashings etc that happen so frequently in our cities would be a profound day indeed. I think it even extends to more or less any situation in society such as road rage and absolute anger towards others.

But it seems it's logic to me, you raise a conscious society and things start to flourish for the better; substance psychotherapy is not particularly the only way, but seems to be incredibly effective; it is particularly important as a right of passage from childhood to adulthood imo, something we don't do unless we take it upon ourselves which is often misguided and leads the wrong path many times.

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heh,..... here we call Jail,... "crimminal school" but good to see stats.

Here on the island,... prison is overcrowded,... not enough funding for programs. Prisoners getting released early, with no good future perspective. Allot of poverty,...... too much bling bling biatches asses and gangsta rap, pimped up rides and plenty cocaine moving through. One big downward spiral..... hahaha......... and 48% of the people here are so DUMB that they wanted to vote not to receive funding from Holland to make the changes, because of some instegator politicians that dont want to lose their jobs as politicians, because they cant get other good paying jobs, so they fucking play the DUMB and uneducated people on sentiments of the past (slavery of more then 150yrs ago), spreading misinformation of the deal of the century via a referendum. Man,... fucckkkkk it's crazy here on this island. And hah,... were are one of the islands with a better economy & higher living standards in the carib........... I dont even want imagine how bad it is on some of the other islands.

The island I live on is Curacao if you are curious to know. DOnt get me wrong,... it's lovely here besides all the political bull shit. The people are friendly,.... and beaches are nice.

we passed that referendum deal with Holland (Netherlands) by a 52% majority vote.

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