Popularity of Juvenile Boot Camps

Juvenile Boot Camps are a rather new way of reintegration of the delinquent youth to the community and make them a useful and constructive part of it. This paper will discuss the effectiveness and popularity of juvenile boot camps. Effectiveness and Popularity of Juvenile Boot Camps: Juvenile Boot Camps have been introduced and proliferated in the United States in the 90s. The primary objective of creating these facilities is to develop an effective program, which would become efficiently helpful in rehabilitating the juvenile delinquent population.

Though during these years the number of Juvenile Boot Camps has increased rapidly and nearly all the states have adopted some kind of juvenile, but the output is not hopeful. The recidivism rate is surprisingly high among the graduates of these programs. This disappointing progress and output is due to several factors. Lack of sound aftercare programs is the major problem because the delinquent juvenile after completing his rehabilitation program goes back into the same environment and faces the same problem again. If proper aftercare measures are not taken the juvenile will likely to recidivate.

Another setback of the juvenile boot camps is the limited amount of delinquent youths it allows to join at a time. That is why these boot camps covers a very little portion of the juvenile population of the United States. Despite all these setbacks and disappointing performance the juvenile boot camps are very popular among the public and the political leadership. This is because juvenile crime is one of the major concerns of the country and the concerning authorities want to show some tangible actions taken in order to curb juvenile crimes.

The public perceives these programs as an active and direct approach to curtail juvenile crimes. This is the main reason that despite all the failures the authorities are continuously increasing their spending on these boot camps and they have the consent of the public. References Tyler, Jerry, Darville, Ray & Stalnaker, Kathi. (2001) Juvenile Boot Camps: A Descriptive Analysis of Program Diversity and Effectiveness, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX, USA.