This article reviews the results of the effectiveness of counseling services provided by the Juvenile Counseling and Assessment Program (JCAP) of the Juvenile Court of Clarke County, Georgia. Individual and group counseling services were provided for 55 male and female adjudicated delinquent youths, ages 9 to 17, over a period of 4 to 6 months. The recidivism rates of the youths who had received counseling services were compared to the recidivism rates of a control group that had not received counseling services.
Juvenile delinquency is a widespread societal problem that is threatening the wellbeing of families and communities throughout the country. In 1991, the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated that 16% of the total arrests for all crimes and 28% of arrests for serious offenses committed in the United States were of juveniles (as cited in Sutphen, Thyer, & Kurtz, 1995). In 1994 law enforcement agencies made more than 2.7 million arrests of persons under age 18 (U.S. Department of Justice, 1996).
Youthful delinquency has been defined as a set of behaviors associated with nonconformity to societal rules and norms. A number of psychological and sociological factors are associated with the development of antisocial conduct in youth. A host of theories have offered a myriad of explanations for delinquency. The theory of cultural deviance, founded on the assumptions of social learning theory, asserts that nonconforming acts of criminal behaviors are learned and internalized in interaction with other members of a personal group (Sykes & Matza, 1957). Similarly, strain theory suggests that delinquent antisocial conduct is a normal response to situations that are created by the social structure (Merton, 1968). According to this theory, nonconforming behavior emerges when a youth becomes frustrated by unsuccessful pursuit of a goal through normal means. Conversely, social control theory assumes that delinquent conduct reflects a lack of conventional bonds with society. This theory holds that structural bonds of attachment, commitment, involvement and belief with society yield an ethic in