A Place for the Spiritual Dimension in the Treatment of Juvenile By Dr. Scott J. Larson Current dilemma Juvenile crime is quickly moving toward becoming America s leading concern. In fact, President Clinton at the end of 1995 declared juvenile violent crime to be the country s most serious crime problem. While adult violent crimes have remained fairly steady, juvenile offenses have soared since the mid- 1980 s. During the period from 1973 through 1988, the number of juvenile arrests for violent crimes (murder and non negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) varied with the size of the population. In the past ten years, however, the number of juvenile homicide offenders have nearly tripled, and this during a period where the number of sixteen and seventeen year olds declined by 10%. Understandably, a major concern of researchers is a coming surge in the teen population. As baby boomers children come into their teenage years, the number of fifteen to seventeen year olds is expected to increase by 31% by the year 2010 over 1994. If juvenile arrests rates continue to increase at their present rates, the number of arrests will double by 2010, and then double again by the year 2015. Society s response What is being done to address this national crisis? Response from the concerned citizens and policy makers has tended toward the dismantling of the juvenile court system, moving more and more teens into the adult prison system. Currently, the number of cases sent from juvenile to adult courts for trial increased 41% between 1989 and 1993, totaling 11,800 or one in every four juveniles arrested for violent crime. What results can we expect from this seemingly new national approach? Jesse Williams, a Philadelphia youth- corrections official says: Tough speeches may be good for politicians re- elections but they don t make much sense for curbing the cycle of juvenile crime. A recent University of Florida study concluded that, Juveniles sentenced to adult prisons revert to a life of crime more quickly after released - and commit more crimes, and more serious crimes - than those in juvenile institutions. The American Civil Liberties Union recently issued a bulletin exposing the flaws in much of the current thinking: If drugs were the scapegoats of the 1980 s, then kids are clearly the scapegoats of the 1990 s. A movement has taken hold nationally to undermine the juvenile justice system, and erase any distinction between young offenders and adult criminals. Legislatures are rushing to make sure juveniles receive maximum punishment, turning the juvenile courts completely upside down. If this backward trend isn t halted, the
consequences will be disastrous - not only for an entire generation of our nation s youth who will be condemned to prison, but for all of who will be left with a more violent society. Putting young offenders in adult prisons increases, not lessens, their propensity for committing crime. While in prison, the juvenile offender will learn from the older, more hardened criminals. When he is released back into the community in his twenties - undereducated, unsocialized, unemployable and at the peak of physical power - he will be the very model of the very person we wished most to avoid. Common Characteristic of Juvenile Offenders Having sketched the larger scene of juvenile crime, it is appropriate to now shift attention to those individuals who comprise this highly publicized, much feared population of society. While one can never accurately generalize an entire group of people, a great deal is known about the today s typical juvenile offender. Much evidence suggests that the single greatest factor influencing the character development and emotional stability of a person to be linked to the relationship he or she experiences as a child with both of his or her parents. Recent statistics reveal that seventy- eight percent of adolescents who are exposed to at least three forms of family violence while growing up self- report engaging in violence to others, a larger determiner of youth violence than any other factor. And while less than 0.5% percent of young people commit violent crimes, this small percentage of America s youth are threatening the very fabric of this country. Any solutions? Can anything be done to reach this population of high- risk youth? According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, there are three critical needs necessary to counter risk factor s in a young person s life: 1. The development of individual characteristics (possessing a resilient temperament or a positive orientation) 2. Bonding (positive relationships that promote close bonds) 3. Healthy beliefs and clear standards Clearly, these needs will never be met under current trends where more and more youth are placed into adult prisons. The only hope for turning the tide of juvenile crime lies in the combination of intensive treatment and rehabilitation of juveniles in juvenile facilities; and in effective community- based intervention. The church with properly trained lay- people is one key to effective community- based intervention. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation states, The empirical evidence supports the role of religious institutions in improving the life of inner- city children. The inner- city church is the primary bulwark in the fight against crime, poverty, and despair. Robert
Freedman at the University of Chicago agrees. He conducted a comprehensive study which concluded that young people who are active in church are more likely to finish school, avoid out- of- wedlock pregnancies, and stay out of trouble with the law. According to a study conducted by Harvard University economist Richard Freeman, The surest guarantee that an African- American urban youth will not fall to drugs or crime is regular church attendance. John DiIulio, Brookings Institution political scientist concurs: It s remarkable how much good empirical evidence there is that religious belief can make a positive difference. Politicians are loathe to promote faith because of their intellectual bias, but in most inner cities where government, school, and other institutions fail the poor it is the church programs that are leveraging ten times their own weight and solving social problems for us. And they offer personal salvation. Secular analysts are beginning to look more seriously at the role of faith in rehabilitating broken lives. Dr. Byron Johnson, researcher and criminologist with the Lamar University says, Religion is the forgotten factor, yet it has proven essential to preventing recidivism. But, are there any proven results? Teen Challenge, a nationwide drug and alcohol rehabilitation program incorporating Evangelical Christian principles underwent a study by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1976. Dr. Catherine Hess, study director states: Whereas treatment for a drug addict in a detoxification facility results in a 1% cure rate and the therapeutic community s rate is about 10%, the Teen Challenge program had an 84% success rate for addicts tested seven years after completing the program. The Teen Challenge program is the best I know of to get a person off drugs. Similarly, Dr. John A Howard, member of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse states, Of all the drug programs reported to the Commission, the most successful is the religiously- based program conducted by Teen Challenge. Prison Fellowship, a national Evangelical Christian prison ministry recently underwent a study conducted by the Center for Social Research (CSR), examining the impact of Prison Fellowship programs on the behavior of inmates in four New York state prisons. For those inmates who participated in at least ten Bible studies in one year, CSR found that only 14% were rearrested within a year of their release, compared with 36% of those who did not regularly attend a Bible study program. Our own organization, Straight Ahead Ministries, ministers to juvenile offenders in 78 juvenile facilities in seven states and provides aftercare through an intensive mentoring program in Boston and two aftercare homes. The recidivism rate for those completing the mentoring program is 12%, and for those who have gone through the aftercare homes the rate is 8%.
It is not the intent of this paper to present a simplistic, one- dimensional approach to the needs of youth, or to assume that the only issues in a troubled young person are spiritual. Rather, we acknowledge that the needs are in fact critical and complex; and treatment needs to encompass every dimension of a young person s life - but that includes the spiritual. It is also not our recommendation that juvenile treatment facilities try to become churches; that would be a grave mistake. Yet, we see the spiritual component as necessary for the needs of young people to be fully met. As juvenile caretakers acknowledge the legitimacy of spiritual needs, they can provide opportunities for the outside involvement of individuals from the religious community in an effort to offer more holistic rehabilitation. Footnotes: 1 Belva Finlay, The State of America s Children Yearbook 1996, Children s Defense Fund, (Washington, DC, 1996), 58. 2 Ted Gest and Victoria Pope, Crime Timebomb, U.S. News and World Report, 25 March 1996, 29. 3 Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report, (Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, 1994), 47. 4 Gest, Crime Timebomb, 30. 5 Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report, 111. 6 Ibid. 7 Gordon Witkin, Colorado Has a New Brand of Tough Law, U.S. News and World Report, 25 March 1996, 39. 8 Jesse Williams interviewed inu.s. News and World Report, 25 March 1996, 36. 9 States Revamping Laws on Juvenile Crime, The New York Times, 12 May 1996, 34. 10 ACLU Fact Sheet on Juvenile Crime, (New York: American Civil Liberties Union,14 May 1996), 1-2. 11 W. R. Gove and R. D. Cruthfield, The Family and Juvenile Delinquency, The Sociological Quarterly Vol 23, (1982), 301-319. 12 Terence P. Thornberry, Violent Families and Youth Violence, (Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, Fact Sheet #21, December, 1994), 2. 13 Gest, Crime Timebomb, 29. 14 Juveniles and Violence: Juvenile Offending and Victimization, (Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, November, 1994), 4. 15 Juveniles and Violence: Juvenile Offending and Victimization, 4. 16 Robert Freedman as quoted by Charles Colson in Jubilee, Winter 1996, 15. 17 Joseph P. Shapiro and Andrea R. Wright, Can Churches Save America? U.S. News and World Report, 9 September 1996, 50. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., 51
20 Quote taken from reference in brochurre, Teen Challenge Ministry Center, Brockton, Inc. 21 Ibid. 22 Tom O Connor, The Impact of Religious Programming on Recidivism, the Community and Prisons, IARCA Journal, Vol. VI, No. 6. (LaCrosse, WI: International Association of Residential and Community Alternatives REFERENCES American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU Fact Sheet on Juvenile Crime. New York: ACLU Fact Sheets. 14 May 1996. Colson, Charles. Children Killing Children. Jubilee. Winter 1996. Finlay, Belva. The State of America s Children Yearbook 1996. Washington, D.C.: Children s Defense Fund. 1996. Gest, Ted and Victoria Pope. Crime Timebomb. U.S. News and World Report. 25 March 1996. 28-36. Gove, W. R. and R. D. Cruthfiled. The Family and Juvenile Delinquency. The Sociological Quarterly. Vol. 23, 301-319. 1982. O Connor, Tom. The Impact of Religious Programming on Recidivism, the Community and Prisons, IARCA Journal Vol. VI, No. 6, 13-20, January 1995. Shapiro, Joseph P. and Andrea R. Wright. Can Churches Save America? U.S. News and World Report. 9 September 1996. 46-53. U.S. Department of Justice. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National Report. Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. 1994. Juveniles and Violence: Juvenile Offending and Victimization. Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. November 1994. Violent Families and Youth Violence. Fact Sheet #21. Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. December 1994. Witkin, Gordon. Colorado Has a New Brand of Tough Law. U.S. News and World Report. 25 March 1996. 38-39.