Mark Daniels (asker) Jun 19, 2013:

Thanks for the pointers! Very interesting thoughts, about it being a euphemism that will sooner or later enter common parlance ("namenska" industrija, ha, yeah, that's a good one!). And you saved me reading the whole document just to figure out what it's all about. I do not specifically know the target audience, so I fear I will have to go with a "literal" translation, even though I totally agree with "Behaviour Improvement Programme" IF I was called on to provide a sensible English translation.

Daryo Jun 19, 2013:

You're right about the target audience, although for a text in English it is most likely to be an English speaking country, or it could be meant for an International organisation, where it would be also used by readers from any country in the world whose vernacular is too exotic to be widely translated.
One way or another, the original name given to this programme is really opaque - and anyone who reads enough of it to know what it is about is going to coin its own translation and start using it. I've seen it happen often enough, it's not a question of "if" but "when".

"Behaviour Improvement Programme" could be modified to include "professional", or "external experts" or ... I'm not saying that my variant is the only one possible, just that it makes it easier to understand what the document is about.

Biljana Grbesa Jun 18, 2013:

It seems to me that the asker didn't mention anything about the target audience (being UK, US or any other nationality), correct me if I'm wrong.
The expression itself is in no way informative neither in Croatian but it is an official term introduced by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (so it's not only the title of the book).
If you want to know more about the topic, you really have to read the whole document or you can decide how to replace the term if you are satisfied with the information "it is a programme for improving socially unacceptable behaviour".
But if we omit the word p r o f e s s i o n a l, the translation would again be less satisfactory because that is the term all about:
teachers are not competent enough to deal with such behavioural disorders and that's when professionals like psychologists, paedagogists and social educators are called in and they organize and lead the procedure, usually in, but sometimes also outside of school.

Daryo Jun 17, 2013:

"produženi stručni tretman" is a title that gives the impression of being coined with the express purpose of not saying what's in the tin - in other words an euphemism for "straightening yobs".
Reminds me of SDPR (Savezna Direkcija za Promet i Rezerve sa Posebnom Namenom). Unless someone puts you "in the know" you could keep guessing until the cows come home what kind of "special purpose goods" are referred to (various military hardware, isn't it obvious?).
You could surely translate this title as it is, and let the reader from US or UK try to guess who is being treated, what kind of treatment it is, in relation to what this treatment was being extended, why professionals are needed (why amateurs are not good enough?), not to speak of understanding what is the purpose of the whole exercise.
But a title so "informative" that you need to read at least 10 pages to understand what the document is about is not going to win any popularity contest and whether the author likes it or not, is going to be "re-translated" into something that will make sense to a UK or US reader.