From punishment to rewards? Treatment dilemmas at a youth detention home

Abstract

The present article analyses staff members’ discourses on the treatment method token economy, as it is implemented at a detention home for young men. The study draws on interviews with eight staff members and on participant observations at the detention home. Using discursive psychology, the analysis centers on the staff members’ own constructions of token economy as well as paradoxes and dilemmas that appear in their talk. Two paradoxes were found: (1) paradox of transparency and interpretation; token economy is objective and transparent, but requires interpretative work over time; and (2) paradox of rewards and punishments; tokens are rewards, but they can be ‘zeroed’ or withdrawn in order to limit undesirable behavior. Further, the analysis showed that both paradoxes invoke a principal ideological dilemma of control – freedom, which staff members attempt to resolve by positioning the young men as responsible for their own actions and themselves as subordinate parties in the outcome of ‘objective’ token economy practices.