ABA in the Juvenile Justice System: Session 223

This is a fun conversation to share, not only because it involves chatting with three very smart grad students from my alma mater, Auburn University, but also because the topic tackles an issue that is outside of what we might consider the "mainstream" of Applied Behavior Analysis.

A few months ago, Ashley Anderson, Daniel Sheridan, and Anna Kate Edgemon reached out to me, and informed me of the great work they're doing supporting justice-involved youth in a juvenile detention setting.

As I learned, there is some history of behavior analysts practicing in this area, and these grad students, led by Dr. John Rapp and colleagues, have been developing effective interventions in these settings. And when I say effective, I'm talking about incredibly low recidivism rates...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. If this is unfamiliar territory for you, don't worry. We go over enough introductory terms and definitions to get you up to speed straight away.

Also, there are some great meta-lessons embedded in this conversation about rapport building, staff training, cultural competence, teaching real-life skills, and more. So even if this specific topic is not your thing, there are parts of this interview that I think will apply to your practice.

I left this conversation really inspired by the somewhat untapped potential for our field, and I hope the intervention strategies these guests and their colleagues are publishing become adopted at a much wider scale!

This research group has been prolific, and here are some of not only their papers, but others in this space that you might find helpful:

Related to Juvenile Justice (History & Review):

• Morris (1980)
• Apel & Diller (2017)
• Children/Persons in Need of Supervision (CHINS).
• Mack (1909). The Juvenile Court.

Auburn’s Partnership & Related Research:

• Luna et al. (2022)
• Brogan et al. (2018).
• Sheridan et al. (2023).
• Bush et al. (in press).
• Coon et al. (2022).
• Brogan et al. (2020).
• Edgemon et al. (2020).
• What does "War Eagle!" mean?

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