Listening to National Public Radio the other day on my way into work, I heard a news story about juvenile probation. Youth Radio described how Wayne County (MI) was taking a different approach to children in the juvenile justice system. Instead of being institutionalized, these individuals were serving their correctional time in the community. Like their adult counterparts, they were assigned to a probation officer. Unlike these same counterparts, they were being treated under a therapeutic approach rather than a law enforcement approach and the outcomes were positive.
One of the things that struck me about this news story and one of the biggest concerns with juvenile justice is the concept juveniles and adults on probation have different expectations and unfortunately, the juvenile expectations are more likely to be hard to accomplish and lead to many failures and subsequent incarceration. Juveniles on probation have the expectation they must have good citizenship or good conduct to successfully complete their program. They have rules about friends, school attendance, behaviors with parents, etc. Juvenile probation is more about staying out of trouble or following rules set by the court rather than not committing more crimes which is the expectation of adult probation. Taking a therapeutic approach rather than a law enforcement approach when facilitating juvenile probation seems to not only help these children successfully complete their probation but to reduce recidivism and increase prosocial behaviors. One therapeutic approach research has shown to be successful in both the institutional, as well as, the community corrections setting is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).
CBT
In the 1960s, two theories or approaches merged: behavioral and cognitive. Behaviorism focuses on external behaviors and disregards internal mental processes while cognitive emphasizes the important of internal thought processes. The two merged because mental health professionals recognized that behaviors are often driven by what is going on internally. Then behaviors and the consequences of behaviors impact internal processes, for example adding to misperceptions of social motivation and belonging. In the correctional setting, a tweak to CBT had to be made as traditional CBT has an egocentric approach designed to help people resolve their personal problems and accomplish their own inner goals and expectations. When treating juveniles exhibiting antisocial behaviors, CBT takes a sociocentric approach helping them develop skills for living in harmony with the community and engaging in behaviors that contribute to positive outcomes in society. Individual are taught to focus thoughts and behaviors on responsibility toward others and the community.
Motivational Interviewing
Another nuance to providing therapy in a correctional setting is that unlike in traditional therapy, the client does not have a choice but to be there. Participating in therapy is often a requirement of probation. This requirement means that a therapist needs to be able to integrate both their correctional and therapeutic role if they hope to deliver effective service. One of the ways to do this is through motivational interviewing. In this model, the therapist does not lecture the client and tell them all the reasons why they need to change. Instead, through communication and active listening, the client invokes the needs and reasons to change which are personally important to them. In this way, the juvenile takes ownership of their own process and their own healing. Although this technique works with adults as well, the oppositional nature of juveniles and their natural tendency to push against anything they perceive as being forced on them by adults makes motivational interviewing particularly successful.
3 Key Components
Cognitive-Restructuring: Cognitive-restructuring views problem behaviors as a consequence of maladaptive or dysfunctional thought processes, including cognitive distortions, social misperceptions and faulty logic. A child’s perception of the world drives their behavior. Many children who end up in the juvenile justice system have experienced trauma. This trauma colors the way they see the world around them and the people in it. Never trust an adult, always be in control and hurt them before they hurt you are directions that can exist in a traumatized child’s brain. They behave based on these perceptions and until they are questioned and corrected consistently and over time, they will continue to drive the child to antisocial and often criminal behaviors. Many professionals see this component as the intrapersonal aspect. One that addresses the safe regulation of thoughts, feelings and impulses. A therapeutic approach would teach a juvenile an introspective process for recognizing, naming and restructuring inaccurate or no longer applicable thoughts and feelings.
Social Skills: Once an individual begins cognitive-restructuring, they must also learn prosocial skills. Although some antisocial conduct is the product of the faulty internal processes, some is learned. Any professional who has worked in the field for any length of time understands the plethora of poor social role models surrounding many of the children who end up in the juvenile justice system. Like most skills, good social skills can be taught and children are resilient picking these up like sponges. Interpersonal skills such as the ability to communicate, negotiate and set boundaries are all important.
Community Responsibility: A key part of a child increasing prosocial skills is whether or not a he feels connected to community. When a person does not feel they are part of a social unit, they do not feel bound by its rules or regulations. They do not feel invested to change their behavior or increase prosocial skills. Until disassociation and disenfranchisement is addressed, an attempt to integrate good social skills will be a wasted effort. After a child is taught to feel he or she is part of something bigger than themselves, they can adapt and learn. Teaching empathy and adherence to community norms, morals and ethical standards can then be integrated.
A Promising Program
Although many different CBT-based programs are being utilized in juvenile justice, one bears mentioning: Thinking for a Change (T4C). T4C shows a reduction in recidivism and increase in prosocial behavior for both adults and juveniles. It is being utilized successfully in many correctional settings, including community corrections. This program consists of 22 lessons, each 1-2 hours long. Optimally only one lesson will be taught a day with two per week. An additional 10 sessions using a social skill profile developed by the class is recommended. Here are the main facets of T4C:
- Increases offenders awareness of self and others
- Integrates cognitive restructuring, social skills and problem solving
- Taught an introspective process for examining their way of thinking and their feelings, beliefs and attitudes (includes anger control)
- Social-skills training is provided as an alternative to antisocial behavior
- Integrating the skills into steps for problem solving (including interpersonal problem solving). This problem solving becomes the central approach learned that enable them to work through difficult situations without engaging in criminal behavior
How to handle the rehabilitative nature of juvenile justice is often at the forefront of the mind of professionals working in the field. Strictly correctional, law enforcement based approaches are not in the best interest of juveniles and often lead to kids who graduate into the adult system. On the other hand, therapeutic approaches are showing great promise. CBT is one such approach that integrates restructuring of a child’s internal processes and external actions. CBT-model approaches are being taught to correction personnel along with therapists working in correctional settings. The goal is to help a child change a negative, threatening, antisocial world-view which allows them to not only reintegrate into their community but to live more peacefully within.
Michelle Perin
Michelle Perin has been a freelance writer since 2000. In December 2010, she earned her Master’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Indiana State University.
