Juvenile Boot Camps for Troubled Teens - Are They Effective?

Many parents send their child to a juvenile boot camp hoping to scare the child into making right decisions. They often find out later that the program produced, at best, temporary results. At worst, these programs cause greater problems as the child matures. It is unrealistic for parents to expect a short-term, quick-fix program will change harmful behaviors that have developed over many years.

Although once the subject of media attention, the idea that the severity of a “tough love” boot camp will serve as a wake-up call and shock a child into making better decisions (“scared straight”) has been called into question in recent years. Since the use of juvenile boot camps became prominent in the 1990s, numerous studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of these programs. These studies have noted several failures in juvenile boot camps that make them an ineffective method of rehabilitating wayward teens.

First, studies show that boot camp attendees have a high risk of returning to their former behavior once they leave the program. This tendency to relapse into an earlier form of behavior is known as recidivism. The intimidating environment of a juvenile boot camp can seem far-removed once a child returns to his own home territory. Too often, the child falls back in with his former peer group and lapses into his old ways.

Second, the confrontational atmosphere of a juvenile boot camp is inappropriate for developing children. The use of intimidation, humiliation, and fear to engineer behavior modification are damaging and can result in permanent harm to the child. These practices can be particularly excruciating for children with learning, behavioral, or emotional difficulties.

Finally,juvenile boot camps do not equip children with the pro-social coping skills they need to succeed in the real world. Developing children must acquire the skills to make their own decisions and function in everyday society, without intimidation to keep them in line. Because juvenile boot camps do not model pro-social behavior and empathy, they do not provide children with the maturity and self-control necessary to succeed in the real world.

Because of the deficiencies in juvenile boot camps, the National Mental Health Association has concluded that the “shock incarceration” methods of juvenile boot camps are an ineffective and potentially harmful method of dealing with behavioral problems in troubled teens.

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