RT Journal
A1 Cullen FT, Jonson C
T1 UNderstanding the importance of communities that care
JF Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
JO Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
YR 2009
FD September 7
VO 163
IS 9
SP 866
OP 868
DO 10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.144
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.144
AB 
As criminologists, however, we reside in a different social and policy world. Punishment is privileged over treatment, owing in part to a concern for exacting just desserts and in part to the belief that the use and threat of pain diminishes future wayward conduct.2- 4 Despite strong evidence to the contrary,5- 7 claims, by scholars and others, are made that “nothing works” to change offenders.8- 9 In a highly politicized environment in which elected officials try to trump one another regarding who can be tougher on crime, efforts at prevention and treatment risk being discredited as bleeding-heart liberalism. When interventions are undertaken, such as “boot camps” and “Scared Straight programs,” they are often justified by personal experience and supposed common sense (eg, “I was in the military and it gave me character”).10- 11 These programs typically have no effect or iatrogenic effects on reoffending.5- 7,10,12 They are forms of what has been called “correctional quackery.”13 Unfortunately, such malpractice and the harm it visits on public safety in terms of preventable victimization rarely earn policy makers professional approbation.