In “’Scared Straight’ and Other Juvenile Awareness Programs for Preventing Juvenile Delinquency” by Anthony Petrosino, Carolyn Turpin, and John Buehler they aimed to answer whether Scared Straight programs and other juvenile awareness programs aimed at preventing delinquency has an influence in the at-risk youths’ participation in delinquent activity after attendance of the program. In total Petrosino, Turpin, and Buehler used nine randomly picked scared straight programs and collected data on the post program offending rates of the “scared straight” participants. In the end they found that “Scared Straight” programs put at-risk youth at a much higher chance, about 28% higher, of becoming a delinquent compared to the no treatment control group.

This research uses a nine Scared Straight programs and a control group. The randomly chosen Scared Straight programs included varying facets of their programs, often including a tour, an inmate presentation, and perhaps a day as a prisoner. The researchers relied on self-reports as to whether they have become delinquent or not after the program. This research is very interesting and is laid out very well. It is astounding that a program aimed at scaring at-risk youth into being law-abiding citizens can have such negative outcomes. This research is used as evidence by The Justice Department as to why they do not support Scared Straight programs for at-risk youth.