Koch Crime Institute

Koch Crime Institute is mentioned in a discussion of whether boot camps are an effective response to troubled young people. Its report supplies a concrete challenge to the belief that the threat of harsh detention will deter crime: it found that fear of boot-camp incarceration had not done so, and that three out of four children were back in some form of detention within a year after camp.

Report and Findings

The account identifies the source as a report by Koch Crime Institute in Kansas. It does not describe the report’s methods or provide further details about the organization; its stated findings concern deterrence and what happened to children after boot-camp placement.

Role in the Discussion of Treatment

The report appears within an argument against assuming that boot camps solve the problems that lead young people into trouble. The surrounding discussion also cites a separate evaluation of boot camps funded by the National Institute of Justice, which found that military-style discipline, physical training, and hard labor did not reduce recidivism. Koch Crime Institute’s reported figures add a different measure of concern: the prospect of boot-camp detention did not deter crime, and most of the children discussed were again in detention within a year. Together, these citations support the author’s caution about punitive programs without establishing that every treatment approach has the same outcome.