Early Intervention and Juvenile Delinquency Prevention: Evidence from the Chicago Longitudinal Study

This paper will look at the importance of Preventing Juvenile Delinquency and what different ideas, concepts and methods are available to those adolescents that are either at-risk already or those that can be in the future. Early prevention is the best method of slowing down the statistics of crimes among adolescents, by keeping them off of the streets and out of the justice system by providing the means to teach them to be productive rather than destructive.

Most people have preconceived notions regarding the relationship between social class and delinquency. A common assumption is that lower-class juveniles are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior than their higher-class counterparts. Criminologists have performed a large number of studies examining the socio-demographic characteristics of delinquents, which often yielded contradictory results. When analyzing the extent and trend of juvenile delinquency in the United States conclusions can be drawn from estimates derived from arrest records, self-reports, and victimization data. Arrest estimates, self-reported information, and victimization data provide different estimates of the extent of delinquency in the United States (Maxfield et

There often limited opportunities for intervention before the fact (Markowitz, 2011). Because of this some offenders tend towards homelessness and crimes of survival such as shoplifting and trespassing, some committing these non-violent crimes as a way of seeking intervention they would not otherwise have access to (Hinday, 1997). Symptoms of mental illness include; impulsivity and impaired judgment and can cause already hotheaded youths to act in antisocial ways (Hinday, 1997).

The authors, in Preventing Juvenile Delinquency: Early Intervention and Comprehensiveness as Critical Factors., use determine factors of different programs, and to see what works and what does not. In this way, the most successful programs can continue to be implemented and improved. They looked at 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 to determine cause of delinquency behavior in juvenile.

In essence, early intervention “involves placing children at risk for a criminal future into programs early in life so as to prevent them from developing into a juvenile or adult criminal” (Mackenzie, 2013, p.276.). Put simply, early intervention would positively impact society because it focuses on stopping crime from occuring in the first place. This is significant because such programs are implemented early in a child’s development, and as a result, they work to address the holistic aspects of a child’s life, and not the crime itself. Furthermore, early intervention programs are typically enacted from prior to birth until early youth, and as a result, they “sav[e] children from struggling with crime-inducing deficits that can be traced to the womb” (Mackenzie, 2013, p.276.). This characteristic of early intervention is vital because adolescence is a crucial time period where young children have the tendency to be especially receptive to supportive and enriching environments. The outcomes of these programs are especially notable as they relieve the risk factors associated with antisocial and dangerous behavior. Most importantly, early intervention has the potential to produce long-lasting effects on socially adept behavior. All in all, early intervention would be an extremely beneficial program because it

As was shown above, prevention/intervention modalities have been effectively initiated for children as young as three to four years of age in an effort to address the issues and possibilities for juvenile delinquency. Effective treatment of juveniles in the system comes with specific responsibilities to be considered meaningful and significant. Juvenile treatments should reduce recidivism, have well-described procedures in treatment, have well-defined training protocols for therapists, monitoring procedures for treatment and proven evidence of long-term outcomes (Heilbrun, 2005). Delinquency prevention programs are not designed with the intention of excluding juvenile justice personnel. Many types of delinquency prevention programs, especially those that focus on adolescents, involve juvenile justice personnel such as the police (Siegel & Welsh p. 401). Often, for the purposes of funding, effective programs should also have a documented cost/benefit analysis attached to its program characteristics (2005). Following are two examples of treatment modalities that have proven effective in working with juvenile

Risk factors for juvenile delinquency have been identified from multiple studies. These risk factors are different for older and younger juveniles. When focusing on the individual juvenile between the ages of

Prior to this course I thought I could look at current research and appraise a study; however, after this course I determined my knowledge about research studies was limited. Now when I look at the sampling methods and how the data was analyzed I can review it with a new lens. This is especially evident with how samples are determined. Establishing how a sample will be taken is of utmost importance and according to Polit and Beck (2017) validity of a study is directly impacted by how the sample is obtained and how it can be generalized to the overall population. Many factors can cause a sample to not be representative or result in bias through convenience sampling. When I look at a study now I look at

Many research studies have been conducted to determine what early interventions have proven most effective with at-risk youth. According to recent studies such as those conducted by Ferdon et al (2014), prevention and early intervention methods are essential and effective in reducing crime, violence, and other delinquent behavior in youth. It is imperative that parents, caretakers, families, community members, educators, and policy makers, educate themselves, spread awareness, and implement and utilize these interventions.

On the other hand, our observations were limited to only to college students in our sample. Also, there was bias in our observations, where we recorded participants that followed our best interest in the study. Moreover, our sample size was not accurately randomized and we conducted the study for a short amount of time, thus gave us a small amount of data.

In the United States, juvenile delinquency is becoming a major problem in the communities across the country. Because of the actions that these juveniles engage in on a regular basis, taxpayers across the country are having to shell out hundreds upon thousands of dollars to rehabilitate these children in order to help them make better choices. This leads citizens to wonder what factors actually cause juveniles to live a life of crime rather than success. In short, there are three main factors that often cause children to live a life of crime. These three factors are social influences, psychological characteristics, and academic potential.

Characteristically, juvenile delinquency follows a similar path just like normal adolescent development and children tend to follow delinquent and criminal behavior rather than engaging in it randomly. Research has shown that there are two types of delinquents, those in whom the onset of severe antisocial behavior begins in early childhood, and those in whom this onset coincides with entry into adolescence. With either type, these developmental paths give families, communities, and systems the opportunity to intervene and prevent the onset of antisocial behaviors and justice system involvement (APA, 2017).

Many children become familiar with the Juvenile Justice System without knowledge of why they continue to commit crimes. Many of them suffered years of being abuses, which caused socialization changes that pushed them to withdraw or act out. This research is important because it shows the long terms effects child abuse has on children that become juvenile delinquents. Statistics show increasing numbers of children who are the victims of child abuse and neglect, although they decrease in delinquency may reflect a greater nation focus on the issue and the use of more effective programs to attack the problem. This research is important to me because the Criminal Justice System doesn’t address the causes of deviant behavior in juvenile delinquents to its full potential. They rather just focus on policing and tough sanctions. Hopefully with this paper and many others child abuse can be prevented along with the long-term effects of child abuse and better programs can be invented to treat child abuse victims. The Office of Justice Programs came up with a “Safe Kids Safe Streets” Program, which acknowledge the correlation between child abuse and juvenile delinquency and is aimed at breaking the cycle of early childhood victimization and later delinquency (Safe

Juvenile offending is a major problem in society. Understanding the risk factors that contribute to the increased likelihood of a juvenile to engage in delinquency is important. There are many factors that can influence the increased risk of juvenile delinquency. These factors include poverty, low socioeconomic status, age (Jarjoura, Triplett, & Brinker, 2002), race, gender (Lucero, Barret, & Jensen, 2015), education (Lucero, Barret, & Jensen, 2015; Jarjoura, 1993), and family structure (Anderson, 2002; Kierkus & Hewitt, 2009). It is important to examine if some risk factors can contribute more than others and to what extent they interact with one another. This paper will discuss three important risk factors that contribute to the likelihood of juveniles engaging in deviant acts. The three risk factors discussed are poverty, family structure, and educational attainment. In addition, this paper will demonstrate how these three risk factors interact with one another, resulting in a higher propensity for involvement in juvenile delinquency.

The development of preventive strategies will necessarily follow from an understanding of delinquency's root causes. If social structure is a key factor in the development of juvenile delinquency, then prevention will entail addressing issues regarding place, identity, or socioeconomic status. For example, if poverty is considered a significant causative factor, then taking steps such as providing jobs, job training, and perhaps additional welfare benefits becomes an important social concern. By eliminating poverty, society will thus