Forensic Foster Care: Alternative for incarceration for delinquent adolescents in the Netherlands?!

In 2012 Spirit, a youth mental health organization in the Amsterdam Area, started to investigate the possibilities of placing otherwise incarcerated adolescents in foster care. These adolescents are in conflict with the law,... [ view full abstract ]

In 2012 Spirit, a youth mental health organization in the Amsterdam Area, started to investigate the possibilities of placing otherwise incarcerated adolescents in foster care. These adolescents are in conflict with the law, suspected of commiting a crime. Forensic Foster Care is meant for vulnerable adolescents, between 12-16 years old, with mild cognitive disability or other psychic problems. There are worries regarding their development and family situation. Incarecerating them can harm these children further, through deviancy training but also for instance loss of schooling. Forensic Foster Care prevents these harmful effects and gives these adolescents the chance of experiencing structure and a warm family situation, while continuing their schooling and follow (family) treatment under strict conditions.
The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that make clear that the principal aim of youth justice should be to act in the best interest of the child and to provide education, support and integration into society. Furthermore incarceration of children should be a last resort. Fostering offers a direct alternative, by providing an experience of safe care, nurturing relationships, boundaries and structures caregiving and prevent them from negative consequences of custody.
We would like to present the outcomes of out pilotstudy from 2015. The results of the first eight boys, placed for a period of three months in a special trained foster care family, are discussed. Main question is: "Is Forensic Foster Care Effective?". Important concepts are treatment-motivation, behavioral problems, aggression, cognitive distortions but also prosocial behavior, parenting problems, parental supervision and mind mindedness. The results are analysed as multiple single case study with repeated measurements, using the Reliable Change Index (RCI) to assess significant change in measured concepts. Results show a increase in treatment motivation, stabilisation of behavioral problems and aggression and ambivalent results in parenting problems. These and other results will be discussed. Also improvements of the forensic foster care and further implementation in different regions in the Netherlands will be presented. This study is a bottom up example of developing new interventions in (forensic) youth care and study its effectiveness.