◊ Listening, help and control are the key words here. From the importance of clear explanation of punishment, to that of formal meetings, where dialogue can begin to be constructed.

◊ Reconstitution of the personal history of a young person and of his or her interior space. This has to do with the “downward spiral of negative identity", in which the self is taken over by hate, and in which the person is caught up in the repetition of actions involving excess in consumption, a search for pleasure, provocative behaviour and failure. One must be able to draw back from all that… to pull out of the dive. Through transfers, often concerning the educator. Reappropriation of the delinquent’s history, or of his or her histories, plural: history as a delinquent, family history, institutional history, clinical history. These narratives are liberating and have to do with secondary resilience, only if they are assumed reconstitutions that integrate defence mechanisms, denials and the meaning of past events.

◊ Shame, and accepting responsibility for faults or mistakes. Since May 1968, these words cause fear. However, as Boris Cyrulnik says in his preface, “prohibition has a structuring influence on affectivity (‘you can’t do just anything you want’) and socialisation (‘this you can do’). Prohibition is not just a preventative, but also a manner of loving and socialising". The author says that "morality is progressively acquired by each of us through interventions by parents and other adults, teaching by example, but also using a simple system of rewards and punishments". Elevating the ideas of shame and guilt, bringing an adolescent to the point of recognising his or her errors, of asking for forgiveness from the victims of crimes committed by that adolescent, "officially", is considered a lever that can move things toward reinsertion.  

◊ Interventions for the purpose of improving problem-solving ability. Learning mechanisms leading to the peaceful resolution of problems, and mechanisms related to various social skills, applicable in a great number of situations – these are more effective when they are paired with learning of pro-social conduct. "Making young delinquents participate in altruistic and pro-social actions is one way of inoculating them with a sort of counter-example, standing in contrast to the violence and asocial behaviour” they had engaged in previously.

◊ Working with the family. Born emphasises the necessity of viewing young people in the full context of their lives, and of avoiding an overdramatized picture of things. No family is all bad or all good. Even in cases where separating the adolescent from the family is a necessity, the family will still have an important place in the adolescent’s mind, and this must be taken into account during efforts at reinsertion. It is necessary to work with the family if possible, and to work on family relations with the young people who are having problems. Michel Born supports working with parents in a group, rather than working only with individuals. Parents are able in that case to share their experiences and difficulties in order to improve their educational strategies. However, there is no single correct solution, and there is no type of intervention that is always to be preferred.