Cambridge Somerville Youth Study

Last updated

The Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study was the first large-scale randomised experiment in the history of criminology. [1] It was commissioned in 1936 by Dr. Richard Cabot, a Boston physician who proposed an experiment to evaluate the effects of early intervention in preventing or reducing rates of juvenile delinquency. It was started in 1939 by Edwin Powers and Helen Witmer. [2] [3]

Contents

Planning

For the study, 506 boys, ages 5 to 13 years old who lived in youth facilities in eastern Massachusetts, were selected and matched carefully into either a treatment group or a control group. The boys in the treatment group were assigned a counselor and received academic tutoring, medical and psychiatric attention, and referrals to YMCA, Boy Scouts, summer camps and community programs. Boys in the control group were only told to report regularly. [2] [4] [5]

Follow-up studies

For the initial and ten year follow up, there was either no difference or a greater rate of negative results as reported by the authors. [2] 30 years after the initial experiment about 95% of the participants were found by using public records and surveyed by Joan McCord. [5] [6]

McCord found that when compared to the control group, men in the treatment group were, to a statistically significant degree

  1. “more likely to commit (at least) a second crime”
  2. “more likely to evidence signs of alcoholism,”
  3. “more commonly manifest signs of serious mental illness”
  4. more likely to die younger
  5. “more likely to report having had at least one stress-related disease; in particular, they were more likely to have experience high blood pressure or heart trouble,”
  6. ”tended to have occupations with lower prestige,”
  7. “tended more often to report their work as not satisfying.”

Yet the program had no significant impacts on juvenile arrest rates measured by official or unofficial records. The program also had no impacts on adult arrest rates. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the number of serious crimes committed, age at when a first crime was committed, age when first committing a serious crime, or age after no serious crime was committed. A larger proportion of criminals from the treatment group went on to commit additional crimes than their counterparts in the control group. [5]

Later conclusions

In 1981, McCord published a study from new data she gathered about the original participants of the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study. Compared to the control group of the study, she found that a significantly greater proportion of the treatment group

She formulated four hypotheses about why the program had some damaging results to the treatment group: (1) that counselors imposed middle-class values on lower-class youth which did not help the youth. (2) that boys in the treatment group became dependent on counselors and, when the program ended, the boys lost a source of help. (3) that the treatment group suffered a labeling effect. (4) that the helpfulness of the counselors increased expectations of the boys in the treatment group which could not be sustained, resulting in disillusionment after the program was completed. [3] [5] [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile delinquency</span> Illegal behavior by minors

Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. The term delinquent usually refers to juvenile delinquency, and is also generalised to refer to a young person who behaves an unacceptable way.

Sex differences in crime are differences between men and women as the perpetrators or victims of crime. Such studies may belong to fields such as criminology, sociobiology, or feminist studies. Despite the difficulty of interpreting them, crime statistics may provide a way to investigate such a relationship from a gender differences perspective. An observable difference in crime rates between men and women might be due to social and cultural factors, crimes going unreported, or to biological factors for example, testosterone or sociobiological theories). The nature or motive of the crime itself may also require consideration as a factor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile court</span> Court to try minors for legal offenses

A juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes that are committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal systems, children who commit a crime are treated differently from legal adults that have committed the same offense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social disorganization theory</span> Sociologic theory on crime and neighbourhood ecology

In sociology, the social disorganization theory is a theory developed by the Chicago School, related to ecological theories. The theory directly links crime rates to neighbourhood ecological characteristics; a core principle of social disorganization theory that states location matters. In other words, a person's residential location is a substantial factor shaping the likelihood that that person will become involved in illegal activities. The theory suggests that, among determinants of a person's later illegal activity, residential location is as significant as or more significant than the person's individual characteristics. For example, the theory suggests that youths from disadvantaged neighborhoods participate in a subculture which approves of delinquency, and that these youths thus acquire criminality in this social and cultural setting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American juvenile justice system</span> Aspect of American justice system

The American juvenile justice system is the primary system used to handle minors who are convicted of criminal offenses. The system is composed of a federal and many separate state, territorial, and local jurisdictions, with states and the federal government sharing sovereign police power under the common authority of the United States Constitution. The juvenile justice system intervenes in delinquent behavior through police, court, and correctional involvement, with the goal of rehabilitation. Youth and their guardians can face a variety of consequences including probation, community service, youth court, youth incarceration and alternative schooling. The juvenile justice system, similar to the adult system, operates from a belief that intervening early in delinquent behavior will deter adolescents from engaging in criminal behavior as adults.

Sheldon Glueck was a Polish-American criminologist. He and his wife Eleanor Glueck collaborated extensively on research related to juvenile delinquency and developed the "Social Prediction Tables" model for predicting the likelihood of delinquent behavior in youth. They were the first criminologists to perform studies of chronic juvenile offenders and among the first to examine the effects of psychopathy among the more serious delinquents.

Juvenile delinquency in the United States refers to crimes committed by children or young people, particularly those under the age of eighteen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youth incarceration in the United States</span>

The United States incarcerates more of its youth than any other country in the world, although reports claim China has around 600,000 juveniles imprisoned which would be more than the US, through the juvenile courts and the adult criminal justice system, which reflects the larger trends in incarceration practices in the United States. In 2010, approximately 70,800 juveniles were incarcerated in youth detention facilities alone. As of 2006, approximately 500,000 youth were brought to detention centers in a given year. This data does not reflect juveniles tried as adults. As of 2013, around 40% were incarcerated in privatized, for-profit facilities.

Eleanor Touroff Glueck was an American social worker and criminologist. She and her husband Sheldon Glueck collaborated extensively on research related to juvenile delinquency and developed the "social prediction tables" model for ascertaining the likelihood of delinquent behavior in youth. They were the first criminologists to perform studies of chronic juvenile offenders and among the first to examine the effects of psychopathy among the more serious delinquents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminology</span> Study of crime and criminal actions/behavior

Criminology is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behavioural and social sciences, which draws primarily upon the research of sociologists, political scientists, economists, legal sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, psychiatrists, social workers, biologists, social anthropologists, scholars of law and jurisprudence, as well as the processes that define administration of justice and the criminal justice system.

Joan Fish McCord was an American professor of Criminology at Temple University. Through her experimental studies of delinquency, including the Cambridge Somerville Youth Study, and her philosophical perspective, she made important contributions to the understanding of developmental criminology, the differing roles of mothers, fathers, and neighborhoods, and the importance of differentiating between discipline and punishment. McCord was a recipient of the Herbert Bloch Award from the American Society of Criminology. and the International Society of Criminology's Emile Durkheim prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender responsive approach for girls in the juvenile justice system</span>

Gender responsive approach for girls in the juvenile justice system represents an emerging trend in communities and courts throughout the United States, Australia and Latin America, as an increasing number of girls are entering the juvenile justice system. A gender responsive approach within the juvenile justice system emphasizes considering the unique circumstances and needs of females when designing juvenile justice system structures, policies, and procedures.

Per-Olof Helge Wikstrӧm is Professor of Ecological and Developmental Criminology at the University of Cambridge, Professorial Fellow of Girton College and Principal Investigator of the Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS+), a major ESRC funded longitudinal study of young people in the UK which aims to advance knowledge about crime causation and prevention. His main research interests are developing a unified theory of the causes of crime, testing it empirically and applying it to devising knowledge-based prevention policies. His work is internationally acknowledged, as demonstrated by his election as a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology in 2010 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2011.

Anthony Allan Braga is an American criminologist and the Jerry Lee Professor of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. Braga is also the Director of the Crime and Justice Policy Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. He previously held faculty and senior research positions at Harvard University, Northeastern University, Rutgers University, and the University of California at Berkeley. Braga is a member of the federal monitor team overseeing the reforms to New York City Police Department (NYPD) policies, training, supervision, auditing, and handling of complaints and discipline regarding stops and frisks and trespass enforcement.

David Philip Farrington is a British criminologist, forensic psychologist, and emeritus professor of psychological criminology at the University of Cambridge, where he is also a Leverhulme Trust Emeritus Fellow. In 2014, Paul Hawkins and Bitna Kim wrote that Farrington "is considered one of the leading psychologists and main contributors to the field of criminology in recent years."

Thomas G. Blomberg is an American criminologist. He is an expert in criminology research and public policy; delinquency, education and crime desistance; penology and social control; and victim services. He is currently the Dean, Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology, and the executive director of the Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research at the Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Experimental criminology</span> Field of study within criminology

Experimental criminology is a field within criminology that uses scientific experiments to answer questions about crime: its prevention, punishment and harm. These experiments are primarily conducted in real-life settings, rather than in laboratories. From policing to prosecution to probation, prisons and parole, these field experiments compare similar units with different practices for dealing with crime and responses to crime. These units can be individual suspects or offenders, people, places, neighborhoods, times of day, gangs, or even police officers or judges. The experiments often use random assignment to create similar units in both a "treatment" and a "control" group, with the "control" sometimes consisting of the current way of dealing with crime and the "treatment" a new way of doing so. Such experiments, while not perfect, are generally considered to be the best available way to estimate the cause and effect relationship of one variable to another. Other research designs not using random assignment are also considered to be experiments because they entail human manipulation of the causal relationships being tested.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center</span> Juvenile psychiatric facility In Madison, Wisconsin

Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center (MJTC) is a juvenile psychiatric facility of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, located in the Lorenz Hall Annex on the grounds of the Mendota Mental Health Institute (MMHI) in Madison, Wisconsin. It has space for 29 patients. The inmates at Mendota usually have anti-social personality disorders who do not feel empathy, guilt, nor remorse. It uses the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center Program.

J. David Hawkins is an American sociologist, academic, and author. He is Emeritus Endowed Professor of Prevention and founding director of the Social Development Research Group in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. His research focuses on the prevention of behavior problems in children and adolescents. He developed the Communities That Care prevention system with Richard F. Catalano.

Community crime prevention relates to interventions designed to bring reform to the social conditions that influence, and encourage, offending in residential communities. Community crime prevention has a focus on both the social and local institutions found within communities which can influence crime rates, specifically juvenile delinquency.

References

  1. Hayward, Keith; Maruna, Shadd; Mooney, Jayne (2009-12-04). Fifty Key Thinkers in Criminology. ISBN   978-1135265397.
  2. 1 2 3 Cabot, P.S. deQ. (June 1940). "A Long-Term Study of Children: The Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study". Child Development. 11 (2): 143–151. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1940.tb04293.x. JSTOR   1125845.
  3. 1 2 Crime And Family: Joan McCord; Vol. 17 No. 11 (November, 2007) pp.846-850
  4. Powers, Edwin (1951). An experiment in the prevention of delinquency. NY: Columbia University Press.
  5. 1 2 3 4 McCord, Joan (2007) [1978]. "A thirty-year follow-up of treatment effects". Crime And Family: Selected Essays Of Joan McCord. Temple University Press (original published by American Psychological Association in American Psychologist). ISBN   9781592135585 . Retrieved January 13, 2013.
  6. "Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study". ChildTrends. Archived from the original on 2012-12-31. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  7. Powers, E (1951). An experiment in the prevention of delinquency. NY: Columbia University Press.

Further reading