Individual counseling is much more costly than group counseling. The aim of group counseling is to develop positive peer pressure that will influence its members. One idea is that group problem-solving has definite advantages over individual problem-solving. The idea is that a wider variety of solutions can be derived by drawing from the experience of several people with different backgrounds. Also one individuals problem might have already been solved by another group member and can be suggested. Often if a peer proposes a solution it carries more weight than if the counselor were to suggest it. .
Further, in sociology, one of the major theories of delinquency is differential association. This means some people learned their ways from "undesirable" people who they were forced to be in association with and that this association "warps" their thinking and social attitudes. "Group counseling, group interaction, and other kinds of group activities can provide a corrective, positive experience that might help to offset the earlier delinquent association" . However, it is said that group counseling can do little to destroy the power of labeling. The differential-association theory emphasizes that a person is more likely to become a criminal if the people who have the greatest influence upon them are criminals . .
Most of today's correctional institutions lack the ability and programs to rehabilitate the criminals of America. One can predict that a prisoner held for two, four, eight or ten years, then released , still with no education or vocational skills will likely return to a life of crime. Often their life in crime will resume in weeks after their release. Although the best prisons and programs in the world will not cure the problem totally, improvements still must be made . .
Prison inmates, are some of the most "maladjusted" people in society. Most of the inmates have had too little discipline or too much, come from broken homes, and have no self-esteem.
