Neoconservatives and the Demise of a Humane Juvenile Justice Program: A Conversation About Social Science and Racism

Institutional racism often results in events such as an unjustifiable death of an African American citizen at the hands of the police. These events induce the leaders of the dominant white society to call for “a conversation about racism,” which results in no meaningful change. This article suggests that a meaningful conversation could be had about the influence of social science on U.S. criminal justice policy—especially juvenile justice. The focus of that conversation should be on neoconservative social science, which has had a major impact on the criminal justice system as it exists today. The author briefly highlights the leading neoconservatives of the last half of the twentieth century. The demise of the Achievement Place/Teaching‐Family model—a rehabilitative, nonpunitive, community‐based treatment program for youthful offenders—is discussed as an example of neoconservative utilization of inadequate science in their claim that “nothing works” in rehabilitation programs. It is argued that perceived inherent deficiencies in African Americans—as a “race”—were a fixation of leading neoconservative scholars.