PANEL: 'SCARE TACTICS' DON'T CUT TEEN CRIME

Boot Camps May Raise Violence, Says Report That Backs Counseling

WASHINGTON - Boot camps and other "get tough" programs for adolescents
do not prevent crime and may make the problem even worse, an expert
panel concluded Friday.

Laws transferring juveniles into the adult court system lead these
teens to commit more violence, and there is no proof they deter others
from committing crime, the panel said.

More promising, it said, are programs that offer intensive counseling
for families and young people at risk.

The 13-member panel of experts, convened by the National Institutes of
Health, reviewed the available scientific evidence to look for
consensus on causes of youth violence and ways to prevent it.

" 'Scare tactics' don't work," the panel concluded in its report,
released Friday. "Programs that seek to prevent violence through fear
and tough treatment do not work."

Youth violence has declined from its peak a decade ago, but violent
crime rates are still high, the panel said.

Violence can be traced to a variety of possible factors: inconsistent
or harsh parenting, poor peer relations, gang involvement, lack of
connection to school and living in a violent neighborhood.

The trouble with boot camps, group detention centers and other "get
tough" programs is they bring together young people who are inclined
toward violence and who teach each other how to commit more crime, the
panel said: "The more sophisticated [teens] instruct the more naive in
precisely the behaviors that the intervener wishes to prevent."

It also rejected programs that "consist largely of adults lecturing,"
like DARE.

One barrier to implementing effective programs, the report said, is
resistance from people operating ineffective programs who depend on
them for their jobs.

"All the evaluations have shown they don't work," said the panel's
chair, Dr. Robert L. Johnson of the University of Medicine and
Dentistry of New Jersey. "Many communities are wasting a great deal of
money on those types of programs."

The panel looked for programs tested using rigorous research methods
and concluded that "the good news is that there are a number of
intervention programs that have been shown" effective.

The report cited two: a therapy program where youth and their families
attend 12 one-hour sessions over three months, and a community-based
clinical treatment program that targeted violent and chronic offenders
at risk of being removed from their families. This second program
provided about 60 hours of counseling over about four months with
therapists available at all hours.

One key, Dr. Johnson said, was letting counselors observe families and
children together and offer suggestions for better parenting.

Both programs reduced arrest rates and out-of-home placements, with
positive effects four years after treatment ended.

The report identified six other programs that seemed to work but that
hadn't been studied as closely, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, a
nurse-family partnership program and Project Towards No Drug Abuse.