Under this prevention and early intervention framework, an increasing body of research is being conducted to determine which of the many existing programs are truly effective. Current literature indicates that effective programs are those that aim to act as early as possible and focus on known risk factors and the behavioral development of juveniles. The youth. All programs included in the program directory have been rigorously reviewed based on their conceptual framework, whether or not the program was implemented as intended, how it was evaluated, and the findings of the evaluations.
Programs found to be effective are classified on a three-tier continuum:. Youth who receive special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act IDEA and especially young adults of transition age, should be involved in planning for life after high school as early as possible and no later than age Research links early leadership with increased self-efficacy and suggests that leadership can help youth to develop decision making and interpersonal skills that support successes in the workforce and adulthood.
In addition, young leaders tend to be more involved in their communities, and have lower dropout rates than their peers. Youth leaders also show considerable benefits for their communities, providing valuable insight into the needs and interests of young people.
Nearly 30, youth aged out of foster care in Fiscal Year , which represents nine percent of the young people involved in the foster care system that year.
This transition can be challenging for youth, especially youth who have grown up in the child welfare system. Read about how coordination between public service agencies can improve treatment for these youth.
Civic engagement has the potential to empower young adults, increase their self-determination, and give them the skills and self-confidence they need to enter the workforce. We need your ideas! Click here to share. Prevention and Early Intervention.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Tribal Justice and Safety. National Youth Justice Awareness Month, Report: Juvenile Court Statistics Resource: Complex Trauma Fact Sheets. Resource: Diversion Programs I-Guide. Resource: Mentoring as a Component of Reentry. Resource: The Mentoring Toolkit 2. Resource: Updates to Statistical Briefing Book. Youth M.
Data Sources Bureau of Justice Statistics. National Youth Gang Survey Analysis. Uniform Crime Reports. Just Launched! Redesigned YE4C. Keeping youth in school and out of the justice system. Myth Busters: National Reentry and Medicaid. Programs Federal Youth Court Program. Gang Resistence and Education Program. Reintegration of ExOffenders Program.
Publications National Gang Threat Assessment. Aftercare Services. Amber Alert: Best Practices. Greenwood specifically cites home-visiting programs that target pregnant teens and their at-risk infants and preschool education for at-risk children that includes home visits or work with parents.
Successful school-based programs can prevent drug use, delinquency, anti-social behavior, and early school drop-out. Greenwood also discusses community-based programs that can divert first-time offenders from further encounters with the justice system.
The most successful community programs emphasize family interactions and provide skills to the adults who supervise and train the child.
Progress in implementing effective programs, says Greenwood, is slow. Once these risk factors are lessened, the problem behavior is much less likely to occur. Although there is really no way to completely predict which children will behave in delinquent and criminal ways in the future, there are a multitude of risk factors that have been shown to correlate with these behaviors. Fetal substance exposure, prenatal difficulties, an abusive and violent family are all risk factors related to poorer executive functioning.
This weakness is then shown to lead to violent behavior Zagar, Busch, and Hughes Other precursors to later frequent offending include poor child-rearing practices, poor parental supervision, criminal parents and siblings, low family income, large family size, poor housing, low intelligence, and low educational attainment Zigler and Taussig It has also been shown that early-onset antisocial behavior is associated with more severe outcomes compared with antisocial behavior that occurs later, and it is more likely to persist into adulthood Olds et al.
But these risk factors generally have a more complicated connection to problem behavior than simply increasing it directly. For example, low intelligence is considered a risk factor since children with below-average intelligence have a good chance of doing poorly in school. They may also have some sort of mental retardation. Both of these factors are correlated with physical abuse from the parents. Therefore, a child that has low intelligence and is also dealing with parental abuse must face two external events that preclude delinquent outcomes Zigler and Taussig Socioeconomic status is another interesting risk factor.
While in some studies it is directly associated with delinquent behavior, other studies have found that regardless of socioeconomic status, those children who were raised by distressed and unsupportive caregivers in unstable families had a greater chance of developing problem behavior than did children who had nurturing caregivers and grew up in supportive homes Zigler and Taussig Once again, it is the combination of factors and the interactions among them that best forecasts behavior.
So one risk factor alone will hardly predict any future behavior. What is important to look at is the co-occurrence of any number of risk factors. As the number of risk factors that a child possesses increases, that may predict with increasing accuracy if they will develop delinquent behavior Zigler and Taussig So what does that mean for prevention programs?
It means that targeting risk factors is a great way to prevent crime. As more and more risk factors are diffused, the child has less and less reason to misbehave.
First, it is important to define what exactly early intervention is. This is a valuable time period because early childhood provides an unusual window of opportunity for young children to be uniquely receptive to enriching and supportive environments Welsh and Farrington If these programs are successful, they should alleviate some of the risk factors associated with delinquency and antisocial behavior and have lasting effects on socially competent behavior Zigler and Taussig The results of high-quality early prevention programs can be tremendous.
Looking specifically at preschool programs and parent educational services that improve school readiness, they help to set a pattern that prevents delinquency in later years.
Children who participate are less likely to drop out and perform delinquent behavior because they have had better early school experiences and a stronger commitment to education Zigler 5. Early interventions also show increases in IQ scores and executive functioning, better elementary school achievement, and lower rates of aggression and other antisocial behavior Zagar, Busch, and Hughes These programs focus on the risk factors that were mentioned before, and that is why they actually reduce crime.
The best programs, in fact, deal with a variety of risk factors, including ones that come from the home. The best of the early intervention programs build on the strengths of families as well as children Zigler 5. Adults that are offered practical and social support are in a better position to become effective parents than parents who are stressed and alienated. Early intervention programs offer a support system of parental involvement and education that works to improve family functioning and with that, child functioning Zigler and Taussig This aspect of dealing with the family also makes these programs more comprehensive, which is another factor of good programs.
Anyway, the effects of successful experiences early in childhood build on each other to generate further success in school and in other social contexts Zigler and Taussig An important point to make is that no child is inaccessible. In fact, the greater risk factors a child has, the more they will benefit from additional support such as a strong and encompassing program Zagar, Busch, and Hughes Even in terms of cost these programs succeed.
Various cost-benefit analyses show that early prevention programs provide value for money and can be a worthwhile investment of government resources compared with prison and other criminal justice responses Welsh and Farrington Especially since today the majority of money in crime prevention goes towards incarceration Zagar, Busch, and Hughes If that same money could be used for prevention programs instead, the results would be outstanding.
By now it is clear that programs that target youth early in their lives are generally more successful than programs with a later onset. This is one important aspect of good programs. Other programs focus solely on the parents. One particular study used a review-of-reviews approach to identify general principles of effective prevention programs that might transcend specific content areas Nation et al.
This meta-analysis found that one of these principles is comprehensiveness. Two important factors of comprehensive programming are multiple interventions and multiple settings Nation et al.
This theory states that there are a multitude of systems surrounding a child that all influence the development of the child. Therefore it is not enough to work with just one of the systems.
True progress can only be made when many of the systems are involved. This Ecological Systems theory influenced another article to come up with an ecological approach to enrich child development by trying to promote social competence in the various systems that children encounter.
This approach is based on the assumption that the most proximal influence on children is the family, however, both children and families are interactive members of a larger system of social institutions Zigler and Taussig So by targeting these various systems as opposed to just one or a few of them, a program is able to more fully aide in the appropriate development of a child.
Because the risk factors associated with delinquent behavior are based in many different systems, comprehensive prevention approaches are bound to be more effective than those of more narrow range Zigler and Taussig One prevention program stands out among the sea of others. It is also one of the most famous early prevention programs out there.
Sargent Shriver, the initial creator, states that he had the idea for Head Start after a revelation that almost half the people living in poverty were children Zigler and Muenchow 3. Although Head Start was roughly based on some other educational experiments, it was a very unique undertaking — truly the first of its kind. The program provides comprehensive education, health services, nutritional guidance, parental involvement, and social services to low-income children and their families Zigler and Muenchow 5.
Almost 50 years later, Head Start has enrolled over 22 million children in its history Mills 4. The program, which is based on income to determine eligible families, aims to improve the intellectual capacity and school performance of poor children Zigler and Muenchow 4. So in the beginning, juvenile delinquency was nowhere in the picture.
In fact, the goals spanned no later than the first few years of school. No one expected the huge impact that the Head Start program would have on its participants. In fact, the main long-term impact is indeed reducing school failure Mills But the side effects have been unexpected and tremendous. Head Start has been shown to improve intelligence, academic readiness and achievement, self-esteem, social behavior, and physical health Mills In addition, results are also highly favorable for impacts on future government assistance, employment, income, substance abuse, and family stability.
There is evidence that suggests that these programs not only pay back their costs but also earn a profit for the government and taxpayers in terms of deflecting costs of social assistance and judicial costs, and adding to tax revenue. And finally, a meta-review of programs concludes that preschool intellectual enrichment is effective in ultimately preventing delinquency Welsh and Farrington Again, this is most likely due to the curbing of early risk factors that set children up for future success.
It was a short-term experiment however, and therefore was more concentrated and had more funding. But the basis of the program was very similar to Head Start. The Perry Preschool Project was shown to be very effective in decreasing arrest rates, and increasing achievement and success in school Zagar, Busch, and Hughes Children who participated in the project also used less special education services, relied less on public assistance in the future, had better jobs and more stable employment, showed increased home ownership, and had less children out of wedlock Zagar, Busch, and Hughes It is clear that programs such as Head Start do much more than just prepare kids for school.
Another highly successful type of program, that also combines early intervention with comprehensive care, is home visitation. There are many different types of home visitation programs, but most of them share a few common factors.
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