NCJ Number
120477
Date Published
1987
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Current research on the effectiveness of education in resocializating juvenile delinquents has not answered two key questions, namely, what happens during imprisonment and afterwards and how the compensation of deficient socialization processes cause preventive effects.
Abstract
Vocational training for these delinquents marries the two functions of sanctioning (the State's criminal intervention policy) and personal help provided by social services (the welfare State's modern intervention strategy). An evaluation of the preventive effects of educational intervention must focus on the changes wrought upon the individual through the helping process and on its interactive effects relating to the effects of sanctioning. Three stages of reeducation should guide the imposition of correctional standards as well as the theoretical and empirical search for preventive measures. The reconstruction of the offender's criminal career provides the key to his entry into a new client career by confirming his need for public reeducation. Second, the correctional process must shape the client's career, encouraging his resocialization and entry into a new vocation by granting privileges in return for good conduct. Finally, the probation process must guide and control the client's occupational career by providing assistance and coercion in order to best assure his reintegration. The effectiveness of educational intervention is ultimately determined by the readiness of the labor market to absorb the juvenile offender. However, the process is also largely dependent on the joint effects of the client's transformed motivations, skills, and competences, as well as the mediating services of their probation officers, families, and prisons. 6 endnotes, 37 references.