Kingswood Controlled Trial of Residential Treatment for Delinquents, August 1965 - October 1971

<P>Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.</P><br>The study compared the relative effectiveness of two types of residential treatment in reducing the subsequent offending of delinquent boys. It was undertaken in two house-units of an &lt;i&gt;approved school&lt;/i&gt; in the West of England which admitted delinquent boys between the ages of 13-15 on entry. Under comparison were a therapeutic community (the Experimental or E House), and a traditional regime (the Control or C House) which emphasised training rather than treatment as a means of rehabilitating young offenders. A controlled trial design was used, boys considered eligible for treatment being randomly allocated between the E and C Houses. Boys entering the School but considered ineligible were sent to a Third House. (Comparison data is included for this group.) Data on the treatment processes and boys' reactions were collected, and a standardized two-year follow-up of those released, using data from criminal records, was carried out.<br><B>Main Topics</B>:<BR><br>Background characteristics of the boys at entry; post hoc determination of eligibility criteria used to govern entry into the controlled trial subsample; success of the random allocation process; the treatment processes and boys' reactions to them; a standardized two-year follow-up to measure the post-treatment reconviction rate of E and C regimes; comparisons with a third regime, housing the &lt;i&gt;non-eligibles&lt;/i&gt;, which was not part of the controlled trial.<br>
Measurement Scales<br>
Reading age was determined using the Burt Rearranged Word Reading Test. IQ was measured using the Wechsler IQ Test.