Can troubled teens be "scared straight"? Do Boot Camps and Military Style Schools work?

No, not really. Apparently, standing over teens and yelling at them doesn’t work very well to stop them from misbehaving once you're not there to stand over and yell at them any more.

Multi state studies that compared the effectiveness of boot camps to incarceration found that unless the boot camp programs offered a significant amount of therapy, they were no better than straight jail time for reducing recidivism. Boot camps alone seemed largely a waste of time.

So if…

Military style boot camps alone don't work

Military style boot camps with lots of therapy work better

Why not just skip the push ups and marching part of it all, and send troubled kids to a program where they'll get the therapeutic programming they need, and get it all day long?

When our kids are in trouble – why should we tear them down when we really need to build them up?

Fact Source http://dsp-psd.tpsgc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp426-e.htm