Treatment for serious juvenile offenders
Program basics
- Apply psychological, social, and educational interventions to incarcerated juvenile offenders to boost prosocial attitudes and behaviors and ultimately reduce recidivism
- May include behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and cognitive, educational, and non-behavioral treatments
- Aimed at offenders who have committed serious crimes (for example, murder, assault, arson)
Strength of evidence
Evidence level: Proven (highest tier)
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Proven (highest tier)
Ranked as having the highest level of evidence by the National Institute of Justice
Target population
At-risk youth
Program cost
Not available
Implementation locations
- Nationwide
Dates active
Not available
Outcomes and impact
- Lower rates of recidivism
- Particularly effective at lowering rates of serious recidivism, like relapsing into violent crime
Keys to successful implementation
- Note: This content is under review
- Of the various forms of therapy tested, cognitive therapy has demonstrated the strongest results.
- Cognitive therapy teaches participants to recognize, control, and reframe thought patterns.
- Therapy can also provide social skills development, anger management techniques, and critical reasoning and creative thinking development.
- Educative non-structured treatment programs are far less likely to reduce recidivism.