NCJ Number
70219
Date Published
1980
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This review identifies key ideas, concepts, issues, and trends of juvenile corrections in literature on therapeutically-oriented, community-based services that substitute partially or totally for a home environment.
Abstract
The focus of the review is on clarification of the characteristics and components of each type of community service and identification of trends, problems, issues, and innovations in the development and use of community-based residential services. Youth service bureaus and 'school community officers' are diversion programs that attempt to avoid the labeling stigma. The problem of confusion, fragmentation of services, and overlapping of programs in community-based services is analyzed. Although there have been successes in these programs, the failures include projects which are really more like barricaded communities and dumping grounds, and others which are effective but isolated from the community and therefore fail to reintegrate the youth. In addition, many programs lack adequate community support and in some instance there is widespread interorganizational and community conflict, perhaps the major cause of program failure. The diverse programs included under the rubric of 'halfway houses' are analyzed in a study which outlines the variations in treatment among such services as group foster homes, prerelease guidance, and halfway houses. Other programs, such as guided group interaction and intensive community treatment, provide more supervision than is available through parole but is less than confinement. Recommendations for improving the rehabilitative efforts include standards for the length of care, a separation of authoritative and treatment functions among agencies, and even long term, nontreatment living arrangements to fulfill family functions for discharged offenders. Because most evaluations are characterized by various methodological and design limitations, it is difficult to pinpoint the specific success or failure factors. Although there is considerable movement toward the community-based philosophy, efforts to implement it are encountering obstacles such as community resistance, political issues, limited resources, and lack of empirically validated knowledge regarding effective treatment methods and community-based services. Thirty-seven references are reviewed and appended. (Author abstract modified)