Anonymous - Thanks for your thoughtful, passionate comments. You're absolutely right that evidence-based practices are not the only things that work, and that there is no "one size fits all."

But as you know, we're not arguing that people should heed the research and use a program that works at the expense of programs that *might* work -- we're pointing out that the research is remarkably consistent in showing that Scared Straight does *not* work, and, in fact, makes kids more likely to reoffend.

It's in the nature of research that it can't predict how every single kid will fare in a given program; but good research can show whether the program works in a statistically reliable way, for the majority of participants. In this case, repeated studies and and a rigorous meta-analysis have shown that Scared Straight doesn't work for the vast majority of kids who go through it, and it even harms them.

Our responsibility to the public (never mind to the kids themselves) is to invest our resources as wisely as we can, to do the greatest good for the greatest number. And this is a situation where the research really could not be clearer.

I also want to point out that juvenile crime rates overall are not rising, and have actually declined dramatically in the past decade, according to data collected by OJJDP. (You can drill down on specific types of crimes here.) I saw a presentation in March -- I'm sorry I can't link to it -- that showed that juvenile drug crimes have actually gone up, but it wasn't clear why, and in any case, they're an anomaly.