Get Scared Straight Discussion Questions

All analyses showed that involvement in these programs increased measures of crime and delinquency. This review, which examined the results of nine randomized controlled trials and seven in a meta-analysis, finds no evidence that Scared Straight and other juvenile awareness programs have crime control effects.

Dr. Finckenauer continues by saying that Beyond Scared Straight is developed by adults for kids. The developers of such shows fail to recognize the fact that kids don't react the same way as adults. That's why the television series is popular with adults, but unsuccessful with kids.

In the 1970s, inmates serving life sentences at a prison in New Jersey started a program known as “Scared Straight” to deter at-risk or delinquent children from a future life of crime.

Programs like 'Scared Straight' involve organized visits to prison facilities by juvenile delinquents or children at risk for becoming delinquent. The programs are designed to deter participants from future offending by providing first-hand observations of prison life and interaction with adult inmates.

The results showed that programs such as Scared Straight generally increase offending levels with a rate of 1% to 28% in the experimental group relative to a no-treatment control group.

As the Executive Producer of Beyond Scared Straight, I can tell you that the inmates do not get compensated. The diversion programs we featured on the show were established by those jails and prisons long before we arrived with our cameras. The inmates don't receive special treatment from the prisons either.

Far from reducing crime, research shows that participants in Scared Straight programs are about 7 percent more likely to commit crimes afterward than those who don't participate. This finding is not even new—repeated studies carried out since the 1960s show that Scared Straight programs have no positive effect.