The term intermediate treatment implies interventions that are somewhere between traditional one-to-one supervision and full-time residential care requiring removal from the home. The concept draws on ideas of constructive activity and participation in the community. Research has shown that intermediate treatment can greatly facilitate the diversion of youngsters from more severe penal measures. In addition, IT workers are able to combine welfare and judicial objectives in their work. However, IT has been shown to be no more, and possibly slightly less, effective in preventing further offending than supervision, custody or residential care. Findings suggest that children referred to IT are looking for a more controlled and perhaps more emotionally secure environment in which the limits of tolerable behavior are clearly defined, aggression kept under control and the involvement of children in running the program kept to a minimum. The effectiveness of IT might be enhanced if attendance requirements were increased and structure, clarity and support more specifically integrated into the methods and philosophies of individual IT centers. References