Answer to Question 1
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a treatment that focuses on patterns of thinking and the beliefs, attitudes, and values that underlie thinking.
Cognitive behavioral therapy can help restructure distorted thinking and perception, which in turn changes a person's behavior for the better.
CBT is one of the few approaches to behavioral change that has been broadly validated with research.
Unlike other traditional and popular therapies, CBT has been the subject of more than 400 clinical trials involving a broad range of conditions and populations.
CBT has been shown to be reliably effective with a wide variety of personal problems and behaviors linked to delinquency:
o substance abuse
o antisocial, aggressive behavior
o mood disorders
It has successfully addressed many issues experienced by children, including:
o disruptive or noncompliant behavior
o oppositional defiant disorder
o attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Mark Lipsey evaluated the results of more than 500 treatment programs and found that therapeutic approaches that had the greatest impact on reducing problem behavior are based on multiple services such as:
o counseling
o skill building
Lipsey showed that programs based on cognitive behavioral therapy are effective with juvenile offenders in various settings including
o residential
o probation
o aftercare
CBT significantly reduced recidivism even among high-risk offenders
Student responses will vary
Answer to Question 2
Sociologist Oscar Lewis coined the phrase culture of poverty to describe this condition. Apathy, cynicism, helplessness, and mistrust of social institutions such as schools, government agencies, and the police mark the culture of poverty.
This mistrust prevents members of the lower class from taking advantage of the meager opportunities available to them. Lewis's work was the first of a group that described the plight of at-risk children and adults.
Economic disparity will continually haunt members of the underclass and their children over the course of their lifespan. Even if they value education and other middle-class norms, their desperate life circumstances (e.g., high unemployment and nontraditional family structures) may prevent them from developing the skills, habits, and lifestyles that lead first to educational success and later to success in the workplace.
Their ability to maintain social ties in the neighborhood become weak and attenuated, further weakening a neighborhood's cohesiveness and its ability to regulate the behavior of its citizens.
Student responses will vary, but should include a discussion on at-risk
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