Spending too much on too few too late.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Multisystemic therapy

In a time of shrinking budgets, one researcher believes that the current approach to juvenile crime is much too expensive to continue--and he has the numbers to prove it. Charles Borduin, professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia, finds that multisystemic therapy (MST) is more effective in the lives of troubled youth and costs less. MST interventions involve the offender's entire family and community, as opposed to the current method of individual therapy, where the offender visits a therapist who offers feedback, support, and encouragement for behavior change.

Borduin formulated a cost-benefit analysis based on factors such as rearrest costs and for resources such as law enforcement and correctional facilities. Borduin found that MST costs nearly 10 times less than the current system.

"We wanted to know, what does MST save taxpayers and crime victims? We have demonstrated that the net cumulative benefit of providing MST to a single juvenile offender results in a savings of $75,110 to $199,-374 throughout the course of almost 14 years. To put it another way, one dollar spent on MST provides $9.51 to $23.59 in savings to taxpayers and crime victims in the years ahead."

Borduin readily admits that MST is more expensive initially because of the extent of the therapy that takes place in the home, schools, and community. MST works because the therapy takes into account different environmental...