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Beyond Scared Straight And Lifetime's Teen Trouble

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Beyond Scared Straight And Lifetime's Teen Trouble
Prison is not a fun place to be and showing kids exactly just that with a real inmate in their face would give them a reality check really quick. Terrifying teens by making them lie in coffins, forcing them to spend a night on a frigid street or a bare prison cell— these harsh measures are used in reality shows in an attempt to put delinquents back on the straight and narrow. But the strategies may make for better TV than treatment. On A&E’s Beyond Scared Straight and Lifetime’s Teen Trouble, producers document some extreme methods to address adolescents who act out. The shows intend to educate while entertaining, and some of the tough love strategies certainly make for riveting TV. But unfortunately, decades of research show that such extreme

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