Professional Outreach Counseling Can Help the Juvenile Probationer: A Two Year Follow‐up Study

Abstract

Sixty-one subjects in a previously reported experimental evaluation of Project CREST were followed during a 2-year period after treatment and compared on official acts of misconduct. Over the 2 years, the 30 youths who had received the counseling services in addition to probation were charged with significantly fewer acts of misconduct at a lower monthly rate than the 31 youths in the control group who had received probation but no counseling. The upturn in offense rate among the control group was attributed to the removal of probationary control. The study's results, in conjunction with previous evaluation findings, indicated that short-term professional counseling coupled with probation can have more immediate and longer lasting effects than probation alone in reducing juvenile misconduct.

Treatment of juvenile offenders: Study outcomes since 1980

“…Also, nonrecidivists in the treatment group had a higher skill level than the recidivists. Lee and Olejnik (1981) examined the long-term effects of CREST, a program that involved an intensive eclectic service delivery system with probation that has been evaluated systematically for several years (Gendreau & Ross, 1987; also see Lee & Haynes, 1980). The CREST program uses counseling education students to work with adjudicated youth.…”

Basic Counseling Skills Training Program for Juvenile Court Workers

“…The fact that probation and treatment are more effective than incarceration seems to be verified by studies conducted by Lee and Olejnik (1981), who found that using counseling approaches with juvenile offenders reduces recidivism. A study of Project CREST (Clinical Regional Support Teams) demonstrated that adolescent offenders who received counseling committed acts of misconduct at a level significantly below that of the control group.…”

“…The fundamental assumption underlying CREST is that the needs of adolescent offenders are too complicated to be satisfied by a one dimensional treatment strategy-probation or otherwise. Lee and Olejnik (1981) concluded the following:…”

Revivification of rehabilitation: Evidence from the 1980s

“…Differences in recidivism rates of probationers were as high as 80 percent, depending on the matching of type of supervision with the client's characteristics. Robert Lee's CREST program, which was evaluated systematically for several years, has been exemplary in its attention and adherence to the details of an intensive, eclectic service delivery system in probation (e.g., Lee and Haynes 1980). His program contains components of reality, rational-emotive, client-centered therapies, and role playing.…”