Parents considering treatment for their troubled teen ought to consider residential treatment center placement by offense. The population of most residential treatment centers is often composed of a certain fraction of people sent there by an outside agency, such as a court, or an arbitrator, or some other authority, while the remaining population has usually been placed their by concerned family or loved ones. Residential treatment centers represent a stopgap to keep prison populations from rising beyond their already swelling ranks for some offenders whose transgressions may not yet have reached the severity needed to place them in a jail or prison. Sometimes, especially for juveniles offenders, it’s thought that the therapeutic interventions available at residential treatment centers will most provide the most benefit. Zion Educational Systems (866-471-8579) is a wellspring of information for parents of troubled teens, with abundant information for parents curious about residential treatment center placement by offense.
There are, of course, many different types of residential treatment centers, from facilities that offer an outdoor therapy experience that puts students to the test through physical and mental challenges, to facilities that more closely resemble a traditional school environment, where the focus is often on group dynamics and working problems out through discussion and self-examination. The aims of these two types of programs are much the same despite the variance in their methodology. Parents wondering about residential treatment center placement by offense may find little to differentiate between the programs as far as where offenders get placed. Often the relevant authority will place the offender in a nearby program that most fits his offense.
As far as what kind of transgressions get offenders placed in residential treatment centers, there is solid data for parents to examine.
Residential treatment center placement by offense may offer some surprises:
36% Person-oriented crimes (assault, simple assault, robbery)
24% Property related
15% Technical Violations (parole, etc)
13% Public order
8% Drug
4% Status Offense (running away, underage drinking, etc)
The surprisingly low showing for drug and status offenses is accountable to the fact that parents or family often voluntarily enlist their substance abuse involved teens into residential treatment centers before the law or some other authority must intervene. Zion Educational Systems (866-471-8579) can further break down this data for parents curious about residential treatment center placement by offense.
