Preventing crime before it happens may
seem like something only plausible in the movies, like the Matrix; however the
concept of prevention is much more realistic than some may think. Law enforcement methods are transitioning
from the traditional use of reactive measures to more proactive measures of
crime control. No longer are law
enforcement waiting for 911 calls to begin addressing crime, delinquency, and
investigation of criminal allegations.
Instead, law enforcement and the juvenile justice system are beginning
to implement prevention programs that identify risk factors within individuals
that increase the likelihood of delinquency, and begin providing protection
factors that help to prevent delinquency through skills training. Especially within the juvenile population,
prevention programs are an excellent ways to provide at risk juveniles with the
necessary skills to avoid delinquency, become productive members of society,
and ultimately help keep delinquent juveniles from becoming adult criminal
offenders. The future of the juvenile
justice system is shifting towards the use of more prevention methods rather
than reactive methods, because of empirical evidence that supports the success
of prevention programs in avoiding delinquency.
According
to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 prevention
programs are, “…any program or activity designed to reduce known risk factors
for juvenile delinquent behavior, provides activities that build on protective
factors for, and develop competencies in, juveniles to prevent, and reduce the
rate of, delinquent juvenile behavior” (OJJDP)
Prevention
programs are used to address the many risk factors that increase the likelihood
of delinquency involvement and provide pro-social behavioral skills and
examples to combat the risk factors. The
more common risk factors that have been linked to increased likelihood of
delinquency include: dysfunctional home life, absent parents, substance abuse
by juvenile or parents, examples of antisocial behavior, exposure to domestic
violence, and examples of problem solving through use of violence. Juvenile exposure to such risk factors
dramatically increases the probability that a juvenile will become involved in
delinquency. Prevention
programs focus on involving the family, communities, schools, and peers to help
provide pro-social behavioral skills, educational skills, cognitive skills, and
positive emotional management skills to the delinquent juvenile. Providing these skills to all juveniles,
especially those exposed to higher levels of risk factors, give juveniles the
tools necessary to lead a productive and successful life all the while avoiding
delinquency. Prevention programs focus
on those juveniles at risk for involvement in delinquency, and have much higher
success rates for the correction of the delinquent behavior over those programs
that are strictly reactive, or after the fact.
Several preventative programs have
been implemented across the United States and have proven to be extremely
successful. As acknowledged by the
journal of American Psychologist,
“The science-based research and evaluation literature has consistently shown
that a number of prevention programs are beneficial in helping youth avoid
numerous problems.” (Davino, et al.) One
such program is The Juvenile Intervention and Prevention Program (JIPP). This program was created in 2006 and focused
on known at risk children in the Los Angeles Unified School District. These children were taught pro social and
cognitive behavioral skills, attention focusing, personal guidance, and how to
communicate successfully without the use of violence. (Koffman, Ray, Berg,
Covington, Albarran, & Vasquez) The
results of the prevention program were reviewed by the independent journal of Children and School, who concluded that
improved outcomes were visible within the children who participated in the
program. The overwhelming majority of
the students were successfully able to avoid delinquency, or further
delinquency, after completing the program.
A Second Chance is another example of
a youth prevention program. The program
addressed potential and established juvenile gang members and attempted to
intervene and prevent youth gang involvement.
The prevention program recreated dramatizations of gunshot victims and
had the participants observe. The idea
behind the program was to make the risk the juveniles were taking by being
involved in a gang more realistic and comprehendible by creating a visual aid
of the potential consequences. The
program experienced significant results of decreased gang involvement,
improvement of grades and attendance at school, and improvement in behavior at
home. (Hughes, Griner, Guarino, Drabik-Mederios, & Williams, 2012)
A subsequent prevention program that
also proved successful in decreasing delinquency rates is Project
Northland. Project Northland:
…consisted of school-based curriculum
in sixth through eighth grades, parental involvement and educational
activities, peer leadership opportunities, and community-wide task force
activities. At the end of eighth grade,
students in intervention communities had significantly reduced their alcohol
use, and baseline nondrinkers (about two thirds of the sample) also reported
significant reductions in cigarette and marijuana use. Analyses demonstrated that the effects of
Project Northland, … by change in peer norms toward more pro-social behaviors
and less support for alcohol use. (Wandersman, Abraham,
&Florin)
The goal of Project Northland was to
decrease the use of tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol use amongst primary school
students. After implementation the
program wheeled successful results in the dramatic decrease of substance abuse
by about two-thirds. The success is
partly accredited to the involvement of school personal, parents, and community
members. This community oriented
intervention and prevention program proved successful.
Decreased
delinquency rates found after the implementation of prevention programs provide
strong support for the success and use of such programing. The most useful aspect of a prevention
program is that the program can be implemented before, which is ideal, or after
delinquency has already occurred and still successfully decreased delinquency
rates. However, the implementation of
prevention programs as a new standard of treatment for juvenile delinquents may
have some negative consequences.
Prevention programs tend to be very costly to create and implement. Because prevention programs address large
audiences including family, community, and peers the programs will require more
staffing, larger budgets, and more time, all of which result in more cost. The latent consequences of resulting to the
use of prevention programs may be an increased financial burden on budgets that
are already strained. Financial strain could
add to state deficits and possibly take resources away from other
departments. Although implementing
prevention programs may prove costly, if effective, in the long run prevention programs
will ultimately cost than incarceration or probation of juveniles.
The
future of the juvenile justice system will likely begin to heavily relying upon
prevention programs to decrease delinquency rates of juveniles, especially
considering the overwhelming empirical evidence in support of the increased
success rates over the traditional approaches of reactive methods. Although the prevention programs may prove to
be initially more costly than reactive methods, in the long run prevention
programs have the potential to decrease overall spending on incarceration,
probation, and other aspects of the juvenile justice system.
References:
DeLisi,
M. (2006) Career criminals in society.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
DOJCA,
. Department of Justice Canada. Youth Justice. Police Discretion with Young Offenders.
Department of Justice, 2012. Print.
Hughes,
K., Griner, D., Guarino, M., Drabik-Mederios, B., & Williams, K. (2012). A
Second’s Chance: Gang Violence Task Force Prevention Program. American Surgeon,
78(1), 89-93.
Katrina
Davino, et al. "What Works In Prevention: Principles Of Effective
Prevention Programs." American Psychologist 58.6-7 (2003): 449-456.
PsycARTICLES. Web. 8 Nov. 2012.
Koffman,
S., Ray, A., Berg, S., Covington, L., Albarran, N., & Vasquez, M. (2009).
Impact of a comprehensive whole child intervention and prevention program among
youths at risk of gang involvement and other forms of delinquency. Children & Schools, 31(4), 239-245.
Newburn,
Tim. Handbook of Policing. 2nd. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis,
2008. 434. eBook.
OJJDP. United
States Department of Justice. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention. Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act 1974.
Washington, DC: United States Government, 2002. Web.
<http://www.ojjdp.gov/about/jjdpa2002titlev.pdf>.
Slowikowski, J.
(2009). How OJJDP is building a better
future of America’s youth: annual report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department
of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention.
Wandersman,
Abraham, and Paul Florin. "Community Interventions And Effective
Prevention." American Psychologist 58.6-7 (2003): 441-448. PsycARTICLES.
Web. 8 Nov. 2012.
Weissberg, Roger
P., Karol L. Kumpfer, and Martin E. P. Seligman. "Prevention That Works
For Children And Youth: An Introduction." American Psychologist
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