The Use of Reinforcement and Punishment on Incarcerated and Probated Substance-Abusing Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

The primary sentencing options for juvenile offenders are incarceration and probation into community-based rehabilitation programs. Each model relies on different behavioral principles, punishment and reinforcement respectively, to achieve the goals of the juvenile justice system, which include a decrease in rates of recidivism. Self-esteem has been found to be negatively correlated to criminal and substance abuse recidivism in past research. The current study sought to determine the differential effects of imprisonment and probation on self-esteem in a sample of 50 substance-abusing juvenile offenders, sentenced to one of the aforementioned adjudication options. Participants were group administered the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory and the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory. The results indicated that the punishment (incarcerated) group obtained significantly higher scores on a scale measuring social self-esteem than the reinforcement (probation) group. The authors discuss theories that may help explain the current findings.