"Scared Straight" and other juvenile awareness programs for preventing juvenile delinquency

Nine studies involving the organized visits of delinquents or children at risk for delinquency to penal institutions such as prisons or re formatives are reviewed, showing the intervention to be more harmful than doing nothing.

Abstract

We conclude that programmes like 'Scared Straight' are likely to have a harmful effect and increase delinquency relative to doing nothing at all to the same youths. Given these results, agencies that permit such programmes must rigorously evaluate them not only to ensure that they are doing what they purport to do (prevent crime) - but at the very least they do not cause more harm than good.