The Value and Validity of Delinquency Prevention Experiments

Abstract

Five major delinquency prevention experiments conducted in the open community among voluntary juvenile subjects reveal uniformly disappointing results: the provision of a preventive service seems no more effective in reducing delinquency than no service at all. The controlled procedures governing these experi ments make these negative findings particularly convincing and thus constitute a challenge to services offered in the name of "delinquency prevention."