The troubled teen industry (also known as TTI) is a broad range of youth residential programs aimed at struggling teenagers. The term encompasses various facilities and programs, including youth residential treatment centers, wilderness programs, boot camps, and therapeutic boarding schools.[1][2]
These programs claim to rehabilitate and teach troubled teenagers through various practices. Troubled teen facilities are privately run, and the troubled teen industry constitutes a multi-billion dollar industry.[3] They accept young people who are considered to have struggles with learning disabilities, emotional regulation, mental illness, and substance abuse. Young people may be labeled as "troubled teens", delinquents, or other language on their websites and other advertising materials. Sometimes, these therapies are used as a punishment for contravening family expectations.[4] For example, one person was placed in a troubled teen program because her mother found her choice in boyfriends unacceptable.[5]
The troubled teen industry has encountered many scandals due to child abuse, institutional corruption, and deaths, and is highly controversial.[6][7] Many critics of these facilities point to a lack of local, state, and federal laws in the United States and elsewhere governing them.[8] Some countries, such as Bermuda, have been known to send teenagers to programs located in the United States.[9] In addition to their controversial therapeutic practices, many former residents report being forcibly transported to troubled teen facilities by teen escort companies, a practice dubbed "gooning".[10]
- ^ Mooney, Heather; Leighton, Paul (2019). "Troubled Affluent Youth's Experiences in a Therapeutic Boarding School: The Elite Arm of the Youth Control Complex and Its Implications for Youth Justice". Critical Criminology. 27 (4): 611–626. doi:10.1007/s10612-019-09466-4. ISSN 1572-9877. S2CID 210585644.
- ^ Golightley, Sarah (2020). "Troubling the 'troubled teen' industry: Adult reflections on youth experiences of therapeutic boarding schools". Global Studies of Childhood. 10 (1): 53–63. doi:10.1177/2043610619900514. ISSN 2043-6106. S2CID 213786803.
- ^ Krebs, Cathy (22 October 2021). "Five Facts About the Troubled Teen Industry". American Bar Association. American Bar Association. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
- ^ Okoren, Nicolle (14 November 2022). "The wilderness 'therapy' that teens say feels like abuse: 'You are on guard at all times'". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ Aitkenhead, Decca (2003-06-29). "The last resort (part two)". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
- ^ Younis, Yasmin (2021). "Institutionalized Child Abuse: The Troubled Teen Industry". SLU Law Journal Online.
- ^ Mohr, Wanda K. (2009). "Still Shackled in the Land of Liberty: Denying Children the Right to be Safe From Abusive "Treatment"". Advances in Nursing Science. 32 (2): 173–185. doi:10.1097/ANS.0b013e3181a3b16f. ISSN 0161-9268. PMID 19461233. S2CID 40494944.
- ^ Review, The Regulatory (2023-06-27). "The Troubled Teen Industry's Troubling Lack of Oversight | The Regulatory Review". www.theregreview.org. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
Once there, RTFs advertise care, promise behavior modification, and seek to "fix" whatever parents may deem wrong with their teenage kids. But RTFs too often punish mental health and behavior, instead of treating it. Actual, evidence-based treatment, such as cognitive behavior therapy or trauma-informed care, is frequently supplanted by cruel, archaic methods of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
- ^ Miller, Jessica (3 February 2020). "A teen from Bermuda died at a Utah treatment center, sparking anger there and investigations here". The Salt Lake Tribune. ISSN 0746-3502. OCLC 137343114. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
She had been sent by Bermuda's child welfare system more than 2,600 miles away to a Utah facility for troubled teens that was supposed to help her.
- ^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (2016-10-20). "Therapy Becomes Theater in 'Wilderness'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
The slang term is gooning, as in taken by goons.