Wilderness programs, in general, offer physical and mental challenges, adventure, and an experiential education process to promote personal growth and identity. The programs tend to emphasize high impact and stress-directed involvement which demands that individuals excel beyond what they believed were their capabilities. This would appear appropriate for juveniles; one of the underlying assumptions of this study, and similar programs, was that by participating the delinquents would improve their self-concept and self-esteem, and they would adopt more socially acceptable modes of behavior. The main theorem tested was that, other things being equal, this type of program would prove to be a viable alternative to placing juveniles on probation. Tables, endnotes