Scared Straight and Other Juvenile Awareness Programs for Preventing Juvenile Delinquency: A Systematic Review of the Randomized Experimental Evidence

Petrosino, Anthony; Turpin‐Petrosino, Carolyn; Buehler, John

doi:10.1177/0002716203254693

Cited by 151 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(26 reference statements)

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“…These prison-based programs use intensive confrontation sessions between juveniles and prison inmates in an attempt to "scare" juveniles away from any future delinquent activity (Petrosino, Turpin-Petrosino, and Buehler, 2003). One of the first Scared Straight programs took place in Rahway prison in 1977 (Lundman, 2001).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The United Community Action Network (U-CAN) provides a program that locks juveniles in a cell with 4 or 5 parolees for more than an hour. This agency reports that the rearrest rate for juveniles that have participated is only about 3% (Petrosino et al, 2003). Despite these limited positive results, the University of Maryland Research Report identifies Scared Straight as a program that does not work (Sherman et al, 1997;Petrosino et al, 2003).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Deterrent Effect of Curfew Enforcement: Operation Nightwatch in St. Louis, 2003-2005

Urban¹

2005

ICPSR Data Holdings

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the curfew check program in St. Louis, Missouri, known as Nightwatch, to determine whether the program meets its stated goals of reducing recidivism and victimization, as well as the mechanism by which this is accomplished. The rationale behind the program is that the threat of formal controls by way of home visits and sanctions will elicit compliance with curfew and increase the perception of certainty of punishment, and that juveniles who must remain at home will have fewer opportunities for crime and victimization experiences. Perceptual deterrence and lifestyle and routine activity theories were used to test this rationale.The research design consists of a pre test with multiple post tests. A purposive sample of 118 offenders recently referred to the juvenile court for an official charge was selected and surveys administered. The experimental group consists of juveniles who received Nightwatch visits, the comparison group consists of juveniles with comparable demographic and offense characteristics, who did not receive visits.Results of the process evaluation reveal that the program functions well in terms of execution of home visits, but that record keeping and number of visits are inconsistent with stated procedures. The outcome evaluation revealed that between Time 1 and Time 2 the experimental group had significantly fewer self-report delinquency and victimization incidents. The comparison group had significantly more victimization experiences between these two time points. The mechanism for the reduction in delinquency appears to be opportunity rather than a change in perceptions. Thus, the juveniles apparently changed their behavior but not their perceptions of certainty of punishment. Several policy and research implications are presented.This study should not be generalized directly to other sites, given the small sample size, high rate of attrition, and that it is limited to only one study site. Jurisdictions considering a curfew check program such as Nightwatch must carefully consider budgetary, logistic, and feasibility issues prior to considering implementation.ii

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deterrent Effect of Curfew Enforcement: Operation Nightwatch in St. Louis, 2003-2005

Urban¹

2005

ICPSR Data Holdings

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“…There is a growing body of experiments in criminology (for summaries see Farrington 2003, Nagin and Pogarsky 2003, Petrosino, Turpin-Petrosino et al 2003, Farrington and Welsh 2005, Farrington and Welsh 2006, Petrosino, Kiff et al 2006, Engel 2016b. Many are quasi experiments in the field (Farrington and Welsh 2006).…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Turning the Lab into Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon: A Lab Experiment on the Transparency of Punishment

Engel

2018

SSRN Journal

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“…For instance, the Scared Straight intervention, which aims at deterring youth from crime and violence by scaring them away from prison life, showed no effect on reducing recidivism (Petrosino, Turpin-Petrosino, and Buehler 2003).…”

Section: Criminal Justice Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restoring paradise in the Caribbean: combatting violence with numbers

2017

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ative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-IGO BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/legalcode) and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose.No derivative work is allowed.Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC-IGO license.Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license. They lead to injury and the loss of human life, erode confidence in government, reduce the competitiveness of industries and services, negatively alter the investment climate, contribute to emigration, and can lead to the loss of skilled and educated citizens. Consequently, improving citizen security has become a priority of the Inter-American Development Bank in its efforts to support the governments and citizens of Latin America and the Caribbean.While citizen security has become an ever-increasing concern for many Caribbean countries, the magnitude of the problem has not been matched with an equally robust response in terms of research. Cross-national studies on the prevalence, causes, and effects of violence in the region are few. Empirical studies showing which policies have worked to reduce crime in the Caribbean are even scarcer.This volume analyses new data collected in household and business victimization surveys. These surveys allow us to understand crime from a primary source-the victims themselves. As such, this study goes beyond much of the existing literature, which relies primarily on police data. It contributes new information to our understanding of crime patterns, victim profiles, determinants of particular types of crime, and directions for crime reduction in the region.While the crime situation varies among countries, broadly speaking the Caribbean suffers from uniquely high levels of violent crime. After providing an overview of crime in five Caribbean capital cities, this volume addresses several factors associated with violent crime. These include youth, violence against women and children, neighbourhood characteristics, gangs, guns, and the police and criminal justice systems. The cost of this crime and violence to the Caribbean-about 3 percent of GDP-is significant. The study finds that victimization has negative ramifications for businesses, economic growth, tourism arrivals, emigration, and life satisfaction.However, perhaps the most unique aspect of this study is that it has been written with the specific intention of informing policy and programme design. There is much work in the region that is promising and much that is ineffective.This report helps to identify both, and urges that rigorous evaluations of the more promising programmes be conduc...

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Scared Straight and Other Juvenile Awareness Programs for Preventing Juvenile Delinquency: A Systematic Review of the Randomized Experimental Evidence

Cited by 151 publications

References 17 publications

Deterrent Effect of Curfew Enforcement: Operation Nightwatch in St. Louis, 2003-2005

Deterrent Effect of Curfew Enforcement: Operation Nightwatch in St. Louis, 2003-2005

Turning the Lab into Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon: A Lab Experiment on the Transparency of Punishment

Restoring paradise in the Caribbean: combatting violence with numbers

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