Experts: 'Get tough' programs for teens don't work

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

"'Scare tactics' don't work," the panel concluded in its report, released today. "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 troublesome conditions. Among possible causes: 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 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 of them for their jobs.

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This article really reminds me of what I've been saying is wrong with public education: authority and obedience, as a philosophy, are utterly counterproductive to a democratic society. Really, "get tough" and "zero tolerance" programs ultimately do nothing but create people who want to push other people around--after all, that's the behavior that such programs model for impressionable, young minds. It's pretty obvious when you think about it, but Americans seem to love this stuff. I guess that makes sense, given that pretty much everybody goes through the public school system. We've been heavily indoctrinated to believe that authority is the way.

Sigh.

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