Effectiveness of MST in Reducing Juvenile Recidivism

Using the MST significantly reduces recidivism in juvenile offenders. When recidivism does occur it is much less severe. In one study, juvenile offenders enrolled in MST had a recidivism rate of 22.1% in comparison to an individual therapy group which had a recidivism rate of 71.4%. This study also noted that even when a juvenile offender was only involved in MST temporarily their recidivism rate still dropped to 46.6% in comparison to the control group (Bourdin et al. 1995). MST programs ' net cost was $4,743 for each juvenile offender. However, MST is so effective that for each juvenile offender enrolled in MST, the public saves $131,918 (Osher et al. 2003).(May, Osmond, and Billick 2014)

MST is also very effective for youth sex offenders. Youths age 18 and under account for 17% of sex crimes, not including prostitution. As one can imagine, these crimes are especially devastating to the victims and the offenders family. Labeling a child as a sex

Yet still only 34 states have accepted this method into practice. In 2011 1.5 million arrests were made of people under 18 in the United States alone. Juvenile recidivism rates are ___. Clearly this should be of concern to everybody as juvenile delinquents often transition into adult offenders if some kind of intervention does not take place.By avoiding going to a juvenile detention facility or to prison, these youths avoid the label of being a criminal. Multisystemic Therapy has helped numerous families which will not only affect the young offender but also their entire family. The life lessons learned in this experience will help the parents be better parents to the child 's siblings as well and the child will be able to carry on these new values to their own children when they start their own families. Breaking the cycle of deviance in families is an important step in reducing all