An interpersonal-developmental perspective on juvenile justice systems.

Source: (2007) Journal of Law & Family Studies. 10(1): 147-171.

The central theme of this paper is that an interpersonal-developmental model could help provide a core set of unifying
principles for addressing several critical issues facing the juvenile justice system, including: (a) the problem of engaging
oppositional, resistant youth in treatment; (b) the corollary problem of helping juvenile justice staff engage in
productive relationships with difficult youth; (c) the problem of helping youth move through multiple placements without
becoming alienated and more resistant; and (d) the problem of successfully reintegrating delinquent youth with their
communities and families. … The rationale for emphasizing interpersonal factors in juvenile justice reform is based on
three factors: (1) research indicates that many youth offenders have serious interpersonal deficits; (2) the most effective
treatment programs for youth offenders emphasize the development of interpersonal skills and the stability of relationships;
and (3) the process of implementing empirically based interventions is itself a fundamentally interpersonaldevelopmental
process, requiring cooperation among the many adults involved in the rehabilitation of youth offenders.
… These common program characteristics seem particularly relevant because previous research has indicated that when
less serious youth offenders are placed in programs with more serious youth offenders and low youth-to-staff ratios,
deviancy training among peers is more likely to occur. … In some cases, the relationship should be more oriented toward
limit setting and structuring, in other cases it should be oriented toward helping a youth develop appropriate, adaptive
expressive skills. (4) Youth offenders will benefit from help that targets the development of interpersonal skills
needed to navigate their particular social environments. … Generally, epidemiologists and mental health services researchers
agree that across systems of care, the mental health needs of adolescents exceed our capacity for service delivery. (Author’s abstract)