ABSTRACT

In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, the country saw a proliferation of correctional programming to address the rising numbers of offenders with substance abuse issues. One such approach that received considerable attention for the substance-abusing adult population was a therapeutic community. Whereas some studies have found a reduction in criminal behavior and substance abuse, others have found null results concerning the effectiveness of therapeutic communities. The current study used a quasi-experimental design to estimate the impact of the juvenile therapeutic community on recidivism. The treatment group was a sample of 447 male youth who were sentenced to a residential treatment facility that operated as a therapeutic community from January 2000 to August 2001. Due to the fact that there were different times to failure, a Cox regression model was computed to determine if participation in a therapeutic community significantly reduced the probability of a new incarceration.