Serious Delinquent Behavior as Part of a Significantly Handicapping Condition: Cures and Supportive Environments

Abstract

The past 20 years have been productive ones for the field of applied behavior analysis. A brief review of our own efforts during this period reveals that we have accomplished several but not all of our goals for the Teaching-Family approach. In this context, we note that the setting of realistic and appropriate goals is important for the field and for society. Moreover, we suggest that the realistic goal for some persons with serious delinquent behavior may be extended supportive and socializing treatment rather than permanent cure from conventional short-term treatment programs. We base this suggestion on the accumulating evidence that serious delinquent behavior may often be part of a significantly disabling and durable condition that consists of multiple antisocial and dysfunctional behaviors, often runs in families, and robustly eludes effective short-term treatment. Like other significant disabilities such as retardation, autism, and blindness, the effects of this condition may be a function of an interaction of environmental and constitutional variables. We argue that our field has the wherewithal to construct effective and humane long-term supportive environments for seriously delinquent youths. In this regard, we explore the dimensions, rationales, logistics, and beginnings of a new treatment direction that involves long-term supportive family treatment. We contend that such supportive families may be able to provide long, perhaps even lifetime, socializing influences through models, values, and contingencies that seem essential for developing and maintaining prosocial behavior in these high-risk youths.

Vocational and Transition Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders

“…Although we had, and have, great respect and admiration for staff members' work and the participants' successes, in many cases the services we were able to provide simply were of too brief duration or intensity to address the needs of these individuals adequately. We have come to agree strongly with Kazdin's (1987aKazdin's ( , 1987b and Wolf et al's (1987) recommendations that services for many persons with EBO must be considered from a long-term, and in some cases, lifelong perspective.…”

“…This latter, most extreme, group of adolescents are the ones who pose the greatest concern to educators, social service professionals, and the general public; especially in light of the upsurge of antisocial behaviors that adolescents in the United States have exhibited over the past decade (Patterson, Reid, & Dishian 1992;Quay, 1986). This segment of the population presents disorders that are highly durable and resistant to change, despite the most intensive interventions (Kazdin, 1987a(Kazdin, , 1987bWolf, Braukmann, & Ramp, 1987).…”

“…The behaviors and problems associated with EBD are extremely durable and resistant to even the most intense interventions (Kazdin, 1987a(Kazdin, , 1987bWolf et al, 1987). Follow-up monitoring of participants after they leave the vocational and transition program is a vital service component (Benz & Lindstrom, 1997).…”

A BROAD PERSPECTIVE TO GUIDE BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS: REVIEW OF STAATS' BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY: PSYCHOLOGICAL BEHAVIORISM

“…Clinicians who deal with such difficult behaviors as the lack of empathy in persons who commit sadistic crimes or the difficulty some children have in bonding with new parents should recognize the potential in such research. Also, if we understood the cumulative hierarchical learning involved in delinquency, we might be better prepared to arrange well-targeted new learning experiences for delinquent youth, a group that even behavior analysts have not been very successful in treating (Kazdin, 1987;Wolf, Braukmann, & Ramp, 1987). Perhaps the earlier learning experiences of such youths are too potent to be overcome by the modest learning experiences that we can arrange within accepted financial and ethical limits.…”

TAKING STOCK: THE FIRST 25 YEARS OF THE JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

“…The story ofJABA's founding by the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB) was briefly recounted in a special section oftheJournal ofthe Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) that celebrated SEAB's and JEAB's 30th anniversaries (Hineline & Laties, 1987;Laties, 1987; see also Bailey, 1987;Wolf, 1993;Wright, 1993). About 5 years ago, several authors helped celebrate JABA's 20th anniversary by considering the outlook for this journal in light of some of its major contributions and possible shortcomings during the preceding two decades (Baer, 1987;Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1987;Hopkins, 1987;Iwata, 1987; Kunkel, 1987; Wolf, Braukmann, & Ramp, 1987 made up of 1,923 institutions, 1,927 individuals, and 786 students-almost three times as many institutions, about the same number of individuals, but many fewer students. Table 1 contains 1992 paid circulation data for some of the journals that citeJABA often or are cited heavily byJABA, as well as for other well-established journals that are useful as benchmarks in assessing our performance.…”