What might work where nothing else does

Preventing crime through psychotherapy may sound utopian, but a new program is starting to attract national attention, writes Dylan Matthews for Vox. Becoming a Man (BAM) was developed by Youth Guidance and World Sport Chicago for use in Chicago schools, and consists of weekly hour-long sessions with groups of no more than 15 high school boys, with an average instructor-student ratio of one to eight. Its approach borrows from cognitive-behavioral therapy, which teaches patients to identify thought patterns that contribute to depression and anxiety and replace them with healthier patterns. BAM tackles catastrophizing in particular, operating on the theory that living in distressed and dangerous neighborhoods leads teen boys to adopt certain behaviors automatically that are rational and adaptive in that context, but fail them elsewhere. Randomized controlled trials have found participants in BAM have significantly fewer violent crime arrests and arrests in general. Perhaps most striking is the estimate that BAM likely pays for itself many times over, as much 30 times, by reducing violent crime and its attendant social costs in the year the program takes place. Because of the program's relative newness, it's too early to gauge its benefits into adulthood. Researchers have committed to tracking participants for years into the future to determine its effects. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

Published by LEAP

Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.