Intervening in lives of troubled youths
UMaine psychology professors Jeffrey Hecker and Doug Nangle, with psychology research associate professor Sue Righthand, are entering the second half of a two-year criminal justice collaboration designed to significantly revise and improve methods of treating Maine juveniles who have exhibited problematic sexual behavior.
The project is expected to improve treatment outcomes for troubled youths, inspiring more to go on to productive lives before aggressive behavior “becomes an in grained pattern of life-long antisocial behavior,” says Hecker, principal investigator and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Funded by a $341,576 Maine Department of Corrections grant, the project includes assessing and evaluating youth residential treatment programs, and improving the quality of care these youth receive after release from incarceration.
The project has been bringing professionals in juvenile services up to speed on the latest research in the field through a series of seminars and workshops that began in 2009. New treatment models suggest that intervening in troubled youths’ lives early and addressing their specific issues individually and consistently is the best way to help stabilize their lives, Hecker says.
“This project is designed to help the state of Maine improve the quality of care for youth who are in residential treatment programs because of sexual behavior and to create sustainable continuum of care after release,” says Hecker. “This is a case of the state and the university working together to solve a real problem for society. This is research that couldn’t be any more practical.”
The project, “Enhancing Residential Sexual Behavior Treatment and Re-Entry Programming,” began in January 2009. The Maine Department of Corrections is the lead agency on the project and other collaborators include the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie Center.
“Corrections is hoping to get to youth and help them develop a more pro-social lifestyle,” Hecker says, by being sure treatments are evidence-based and consistent, both in-house and afterward, when social networks assume responsibility for continued treatment.
Resulting recommendations should be of interest to professionals in the field nationally, according to Hecker.
