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Is Child Saving Dead? Public Support for Juvenile Rehabilitation

Cullen, Francis T
June 4, 2015

Source: (2000) Crime & Delinquency 46(1): 38-60.

In recent years, the sustained criticism leveled at juvenile rehabilitation has raised the question of whether the public continues to endorse the correctional policy of saving youthful offenders. However, in a 1998 statewide survey of Tennessee residents, the respondents indicated that rehabilitation should be an integral goal of the juvenile correctional system. They also endorsed a range of community-based treatment interventions and favored early intervention programs over imprisonment as a response to crime. Taken together, these findings revealed that the public’s belief in “child savingâ€? remains firm, and that citizens do not support an exclusively punitive response to juvenile offenders.

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