A Meta-Analysis of Juvenile Correctional Treatment

Debate over the effectiveness of correctional treatment has been raging for over a decade. The view that “nothing works” dominates in the mind of the public and relies on many early reviews of the literature for support. The most contemporary approach to analyzing the state of the evidence on correc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of research in crime and delinquency 1989-08, Vol.26 (3), p.276-295
Main Authors: WHITEHEAD, JOHN T., LAB, STEVEN P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Criminal justice
Delinquency Prevention
Deterrence
Juvenile Correctional Institutions
Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Offenders
Medical sciences
Meta-analysis
Miscellaneous
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Punishment
Systematic review
Treatments
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Summary:Debate over the effectiveness of correctional treatment has been raging for over a decade. The view that “nothing works” dominates in the mind of the public and relies on many early reviews of the literature for support. The most contemporary approach to analyzing the state of the evidence on correctional treatment is the use of meta-analysis. Meta-analysis is a technique that reanalyzes data found in original research reports and arrives at a common measure for all of the studies. The present analysis of research reports published from 1975 to 1984 does not provide encouraging results. The results show that interventions have little positive impact on recidivism and many appear to exacerbate the problem. Indeed, the analysis in this article could be considered overly lenient in its interpretation of the results. It appears that the earlier evaluations that claim that “nothing works” are close to the conclusion to be drawn from more recent evaluations of juvenile treatments.
ISSN:0022-4278
1552-731X
DOI:10.1177/0022427889026003005