Psychology Commons^™

Keep Kids Out Of Prison: Community-Based Alternatives For Nonviolent Juvenile Offenders, Anessa L. Pennington

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Abstract

While juvenile crime has dropped over the past 20 years, tens of thousands of juvenile offenders are still incarcerated around the country, many of whom are nonviolent offenders. Researchers have found that detention centers, sometimes indistinguishable from adult prisons, do little to reduce recidivism and rehabilitate the offender. Rather, detention brings about more adverse effects than it does benefits. If incarceration isn’t working, how are the United States and other countries to deal with and deter juvenile crime? Community-based programs are a promising alternative to incarceration; instead of jumpsuits and cramped cells, community-based programs rely on community resources and …