Juvenile Crime Prevention, Essay Example

Drawing upon the congressional report of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (1997), it seems the cases of juvenile crime have been dropping steadily. However, contradictory evidence also exist that the rates of juvenile crime is still much higher than they were during the 80’s. This means that there is still much to be done in reducing juvenile crime rates. There are some key elements that affect juvenile delinquency from which strategies for preventing juvenile crime may be developed. The first is that delinquency starts early in life. According to the report, chronic juvenile offenders start their activities prior to age 12, and do so when they are unable “to accomplish age-appropriate developmental tasks” such as solving social problems nonaggressively, being honest and respecting authority and other people’s property (OJJDP, 1997). Thus, a way to prevent juvenile crime is to boost the ability of preschool teachers to instill proper values into young students. Another input of the report is that gang membership is usually a factor associated with committing juvenile crime (OJJDP, 1997). While states have been trying to combat this problem by abolishing gangs altogether, the problem of this approach may be that gangs provide the youth with a sense of belongingness that they cannot find elsewhere. Thus, it may be a more viable option to legitimize gangs. That is, turn them into official organizations and provide them with benefits in exchange for their compliance with a number of regulations rather than continue to demonize them.

Reference

OJJDP (1997). 1997 Report to Congress: Title V Incentive Grants for Local Delinquency Prevention Programs. Retrieved February 9, 2011 from: http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/titlev/97rpttocong/index.html