The Influence of “Changing Directions” on the Self-Esteem of a Delinquent Population in a Correctional Setting

There is increasing evidence that low self-esteem is a possible basis for risk-taking behaviors such as substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, and juvenile delinquency. Thus, it has been hypothesized that by enhancing an adolescent?s self-image, a decrease in the incidence of such behaviors can be realized. The present study examines the effect of one secure juvenile facility's treatment program on adolescent self-esteem. The findings reflect the program's effectiveness with regard to self-esteem elevation. A follow-up study, to determine whether this heightened self-esteem is maintained and/or results in decreased delinquency is forthcoming.     

“Dangerousness” within a juvenile institution

Experiments were conducted to test three hypotheses within a maximum security juvenile institution: (1) that the Overcontrolled Hostility (OH) scale, the Socialization (So) scale, and the Hand Test may be used to differentiate dangerous from nondangerous inmates; (2) that an instrument can be constructed that will differentiate dangerous from nondangerous youths; and (3) that there is a negative correlation between staff's perception of a youth's degree of dangerousness and their desire to not work with dangerous youths.The So, OH, and Hand Test were administered as was a twenty-five-word adjective checklist (the “TB”) with four response levels so that low scores signified dangerousness. A questionnaire produced a list of subjects with whom staff wanted to work and those with whom they did not want to work.The hypothesis that the So scale, the OH scale, and the Hand Test could discriminate between dangerous and nondangerous “subjects” was not confirmed. The hypothesis that an instrument could be constructed that would differentiate dangerous from nondangerous youths was confirmed. The hypothesis that staff's perception of dangerousness affects their working relationship with youths was solidly confirmed.     

Libertarian Paternalism,Externalities, and the “Spirit of Liberty”: How Thaler and Sunstein Are Nudging Us toward an “Overlapping Consensus”

In their 2008 book Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein use research from psychology and behavioral economics to argue that people suffer from systematic cognitive biases. They propose that policy makers mitigate these biases by framing people's choices in ways that help people act in their own self‐interest. Thaler and Sunstein call this approach “libertarian paternalism,” and they market it as “the Real Third Way.” In this essay, I argue that the book is a brilliant contribution to thinking about policy making but that “choice architecture” is not just a solution to the problem of cognitive biases. Rather, it is a means of approaching any kind of policy making. I further argue that policy makers must take externalities into account, even when using choice architecture. Finally, I argue that libertarian paternalism can best be seen as motivated by what Sunstein has celebrated in his work on constitutional theory: a humility about the possibility of policy‐maker error embodied in Learned Hand's famous aphorism about the “spirit of liberty” and an attempt to reduce social conflicts by searching for what John Rawls called an “overlapping consensus.”