Is Child Saving Dead? Public Support for Juvenile Rehabilitation

In recent years, the sustained criticism leveled at juvenile rehabilitation has raised the question of whether the public continues to endorse the correctional policy of saving youthful offenders. However, in a 1998 statewide survey of Tennessee residents, the respondents indicated that rehabilitation should be an integral goal of the juvenile correctional system. They also endorsed a range of community-based treatment interventions and favored early intervention programs over imprisonment as a response to crime. Taken together, these findings revealed that the public's belief in “child saving” remains firm, and that citizens do not support an exclusively punitive response to juvenile offenders.