Juvenile Delinquency Prevention

Juvenile delinquency, which refers to the antisocial and criminal behavior of children and adolescents, places a great burden on American society. There are various factors that contribute to the likelihood of juvenile offending, and society with its institutions has the obligation to address those risk factors and to decrease the probability of deviant behavior as an attempt to combat the social illness of crime and to concurrently reduce the burden crime places the victims and society as a whole. Combating delinquency, however, proves to be a great challenge, and various approaches have been developed in an attempt to effectively respond to criminal behavior. As part of this endeavor, apart from applying control strategies, the criminal justice system has focused on prevention as well as on treatment programs for juvenile offenders. There is still a considerable debate about the effectiveness of prevention and treatment programs as well as about their use and financing by governmental institutions. This paper focuses on both prevention …show more content…
Some of them address the children in their family environment, others in their school, peer, and community environments. Some programs take a complex approach to the subject by combining all levels of access and I assert that the latter programs are most promising. Family-based prevention programs are regarded as highly valuable and effective, as they improve the family environment and provide skills to the children as well as to their parents. The Triple P Program, the Old’s Nurse Home Visitation Program, as well as the Adults in the Making Program are also rated as highly effective by the National Institute of Justice. Yet, there are also ineffective programs, such as the Families Facing Future Program and the Parents as Teacher Program. Both initiatives failed to show positive results and did not improve the situation of children and their