Social policy and the role of the behavior analyst in the prevention of delinquent behavior.

The author wrote a position paper. He told behavior analysts to leave the clinic and shape juvenile-justice policy.

No kids were treated. No data were collected. The paper is a call to action, not an experiment.

The paper found silence—there were no results to report.

Its only product is a roadmap: use contingency management to stop delinquency before it starts.

McAuley et al. (1986) set the stage. One year earlier they argued ABA should chase big social problems, not just single clients. The 1987 paper answers, “Fine—let’s start with juvenile crime.”

Conine et al. (2022) extends the same ethic to a new fight. Where Dougan (1987) asked BCBAs to protect youth from the justice system, Conine asks us to protect LGBTQ+ youth from our own field’s past harms. Both demand policy-level ethics.

Kornack et al. (2025) moves the battlefield again. The 1987 essay dreamed of shaping laws; the 2025 review hands you the Mental Health Parity Act and says, “Use this.” Same macro-goal, updated arena.

If you only write treatment plans, you are playing small. Courts, schools, and insurers set the real contingencies that control your clients’ lives. Read the paper, then pick one system: write a public comment, join a juvenile-justice task force, or document parity violations. Policy is just another response class—shape it.