A boot camp does not have any specific meaning or definition. The phrase boot camp can refer to a very strict and highly structured facility to which parents would send their children who are highly defiant and out of control. Boot camps are generally for troubled teens who are not only unruly, but are also juveniles facing minor legal problems. As such, these boot camps were started by the juvenile justice system and are considered as alternatives to juvenile and youth authority camps. Boot camps for troubled teens normally last for a period of 21 days to 3 months. The demand for boot camps has grown tremendously in the past few years as they claim to treat teens with behavioral, emotional and psychological problems.
Boot camps have military-style facilities in order to transform a troubled teen into someone better behaved who follows rules. Thus, these camps have strict military discipline, fear of authority and rigorous physical training for children with different types of military exercises. Juveniles admitted to these camps are often very aggressive and do not listen to anybody, including their parents. At such times, it is advisable for parents to put them for boot camps during summer months as these camps are mainly designed to achieve compliance, control and obedience to authority. There are various tools such as physical hardship, as well as emotional and psychological trauma used in these camps, so as to break the opposition and defiance of the teens by keeping them under a certain pressure. Boot camps also include a number of psychological and corporal punishments such as threats, verbal abuse, intimidation, isolation, deprivation, loss of privileges, exhausting exercises and so on. These punishments may be regarded as harsh but they help to create quick changes in the outward behavior of troubled teens.