Pretty Little Liars

With Emily (Shay Mitchell)'s ex-flame Maya (Bianca Lawson) coming home from boot camp on an upcoming episode of Pretty Little Liars, can we expect her to give up her experimentation with sex and drugs? According to Dr. Alisa Robinson, PhD., of askdoctoralisa.com, if Maya’s parents are expecting the pseudo-military treatment to reform their lost little girl, they'll be sadly mistaken.

“Interestingly, the research has found that the boot camps often don't work,” Dr. Alisa tells Wetpaint Entertainment exclusively. “They've done studies in which they randomly assign troubled teens to a boot camp versus other interventions — such as traditional probation, supervision or community service — and often the teens fare no better, or may actually end up being worse than those who don't go to boot camp. The same is true for the Scared Straight programs.” 

And there’s a reason that such harsh treatment backfires, Dr. Alisa explains. “The predominant theory is that grouping delinquent teens together is not a good idea.  Since peer relationships are so strong and important during the teens years, putting delinquent kids with other (possibly more) delinquent kids together can escalate the problem.  The kids develop strong bonds with other delinquent kids and the acting out behavior tends to increase. Scared Straight, boot camps, wilderness camps and other types of interventions seem like good ideas on the surface, but the research overall does not seem to support them as being very helpful in the long run.”

Well, what fun would PLL be if it was about a bunch of good girls, anyway?