Juvenile justice system takes a look at new approaches in handling juvenile delinquents, Barton finds

Bill Barton

     The juvenile justice system’s traditional method of dealing with juvenile delinquents is beginning to undergo a transformation, a study by Indiana University School of Social Work Professor Bill Barton has found.

     Barton’s discoveries will be published by Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago.

      Barton will discuss his findings at a brown bag lunch from 12:00 to 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 29, in room ES4130 in the Education and Social Work Building.

      The changes in the juvenile justice system come as many practitioners in child- and adolescent related-services have switched to methods that look for ways to build on an individual’s strengths, Barton explained. These methods have been used increasingly in other systems, such as mental health services, but rarely in juvenile justice.

      Up until recently, the juvenile justice system lagged in taking a look at alternative methods, in part because it has been so alien to the correction department’s way of doing business, Barton said.

      But during visits to programs large and small, public and private, residential and community-based in Oregon, Alaska, Florida, Michigan and New York, Barton found examples of new approaches to an old problem – how to work with juveniles so they don’t return again and again to the correction system.    

       Typically, many juvenile justice programs followed a problem-focused approach similar to a medical model where people tried to figure out the nature of a juvenile’s problems, what were the symptoms and the causes and then decided “what can be done to fix you,” Barton explained.

      Attitudes under the traditional system were often very punitive, very controlling, he added.

     The strength-based approach though makes different assumptions. Instead of looking only at what’s wrong with a person, in essence, it looks at what is right with the person, too.

      Instead of a “me trying to fix you,” the strength-based approach looks for a persons’s strengths and interests as well as resources in the community to develop a collaboration that can lead to a positive outcome, he explained.

         For example, “A lot of kids like music,” Barton said. “So why not help them use music to express themselves,” he asked. The idea is to help them develop skills that could be rewarding to the individual and perhaps ultimately marketable. Or consider the teen who has an interest in mechanics and engines and could be teamed up with a mechanic who can serve as a mentor and a positive adult role model.

      Barton  mentioned a program in Oregon that took teenagers on probation and used them to cut down dead trees with the town’s Public Works Department. The teens then helped chop the trees into firewood and then delivered the firewood to people who could not afford to buy wood.

     Now, the same teens that the community might have once feared had become a resource and were seen in a positive light, he noted.   

     The idea is to create more opportunities for the juveniles to take positive steps in their lives as opposed to putting more pressure on them, which makes them want to rebel even more, Barton explained.

     That in turn can make the juveniles more likely to fail.

       For more information call Rob Schneider, Indiana University School of Social Work, (317) 278-0303 or at robschn@iupui.edu.