Criminology

What methods and techniques would be useful in a juvenile rehabilitation program to help Tony?

The method that may be helpful to Tony would include individual counseling, group counseling, and education. Individual counseling would allow Tony to identify the issues that are motivating him to use drugs and consume alcohol and to recognize his own role in inappropriate drug-use behavior (Strang, & Gossop, 2005). While Tony does attribute his drug use and alcohol consumption to unhealthy home environment, he does not explain why he chose the same path. Tony should also receive education regarding the consequences of alcohol and use and addiction. This education should be extended to the family because it has a great influence on Tony’s life. The provision of this education would help the family to set achievable and realistic goals for Tony. As with group counseling, Tony will share and interact with other juveniles who have overcome the same problem to lead successful lives. The intervention would essentially include pairing Tony with rehabilitated peers in order to offer hope for Tony that if others have overcome their situation he can too succeed. Furthermore, sharing with peers who are like himself would allow Tony to ask individual questions and listen to personal successful stories.

Do you believe that Tony’s family should be part of this treatment?

Involving Tony’s family would be beneficial to his substance use disorder treatment. As long as the family continues to be part of Tony’s life, they should be involved in the treatment. Family relationships are essentially important in addressing adolescent drug use because parents play a significant role on Tony’s development (Strang, & Gossop, 2005). Family involvement is necessary in addressing family environment and for supporting the child’s rehabilitation process. Like Tony, family members should receive parallel education about the dangers of substance abuse. Family session could provide an opportunity for family members to listen to testimonials and stories of young adults and adolescents who abused drugs and alcohol. They would also have the opportunity to learn how their behaviors and actions affect the choices of individual members. The goal of this family therapy is to enable them learn successful strategies for making behavioral and lifestyle changes and to set achievable and realistic family and individual goals for addressing Tony’s issue.

Would he still be living in his home environment, or would he go into some type of halfway house?

Tony should be living somewhere outside his home while he is receiving individual counseling and education.  Because the home environment has not changed chances are that Tony will carry on with is drug use and alcohol consumption. On the other hand, living in the halfway home, will save Tony from the influence of the negative behaviors being modeled by his parents. But after receiving family therapy, Tony should return to the family so that together they will apply what they have learned. This reintegration is important to avoid isolating Tony from family support and networks.

What would be the potential repercussions of allowing Tony to live at home?

Tony will have a chance to implement the strategies he has learned to address his drug use problem. But Tony should not return home immediately otherwise he is more likely to carry on with his old habits. This is because home environment is supportive and unhealthy. This would render the efforts of rehabilitation program fruitless.

What would be the potential repercussions of forcing Tony to live away from home? Explain.

In addition to causing social isolation, allowing Tony to live outside his home could deny the family and Tony the opportunity to implement their newly learned strategies within their own realities.

Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Rational Recovery

Both Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and alcohol Anonymous (AA) relate to social learning theory through the use of public sharing and group meetings. They offer healthy social support and opportunities to interact with and observe healthy people (Sussman, 2010). NA and AA are based on a strong conviction that an individual can modify his actions by listening to personal stories of others or observe and embrace the constructive coping skills of new peers. Spending time with individuals (models) who have broken free of drug use and alcohol consumption helps one to learn how to deal with this new life successfully. In addition to that, in group meetings participants are held accountable for their own individual behaviors by the group. Rational recovery is different from the other two in the sense that it uses assimilation and attribution theories. Assimilation theory relates to incorporation of the newly learned techniques into existing knowledge to address the problem (Cognitive Approach to Learning, n.d). Attribution theory postulates that the attributions individuals make regarding one’s behavior or events are due to external or personal factors (Instructional Design, 2015). People abuse drugs and alcohol because of ambivalence. Individuals are driven to keep using drugs or alcohol drinking by additive voice inside the mind (Rational Recovery, 2016). Dealing with the problem involves battling out this addictive voice.

The proposed program applies the social learning theory of Bandura to improve Tony’s education. The interaction with and group support of peers who have overcome similar situation will help model and reform Tony’s behavior.

Reference

Cognitive Approach to Learning. (n.d.) What is Ausubel’s theory of assimilation? Retrieved  on February 22, 2018 from http://sites.google.com/site/cognitiveapproachlearning/ausubel-s-assimilation-theory

Instructional Design. (2015). Attribution theory. Retrieved  on February 22, 2018 from www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/attribution-theory.html

Rational Recovery. (2016). Addiction and recovery, through the lens of AVRT. Retrieved  on February 22, 2018 from https://rational.org/index.php?id=253

Strang, J. & Gossop, M. (2005). Heroin Addiction and the British System, Volume 2. London: Taylor & Francis.

Sussman, S. (2010). A Review of Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous Programs for Teens. Eval Health Profession, 33(1): 26–55.