Clinical supervision of court-referred juvenile offenders: Are juvenile referrals the least among equals?

In the counseling field, clinical supervisors operate between the line-level counselor and the organizational administration. They are responsible for both the efficient operation of the therapeutic aspect of the organization, and the supervision, training, and management of the therapists. The quality of the treatment offered by an institution can be assessed by a number of measures, including the ratio of clinical supervisors to counselors, the training and experience of the clinical supervisor, and the number of different tasks the clinical supervisor is asked to perform. Through a survey of clinical supervisors in five western states we compared the differences among clinical supervisors who had large versus small numbers of court-referred juveniles in their programs. Data indicate that therapeutic programming and clinical supervision are different in programs with a high proportion of court ordered juvenile offenders relative to those with a high proportion of private referrals. This programming, however, may be superior to the programming and clinical supervision received in programs with fewer court-ordered juvenile offenders.