Intervention Of All Ineffective Delinquency Prevention Programs Essay

Juveniles are the most impressionable beings within society because they are still learning and evolving as they mature. Those that continue along the right path are able to see the fruits of their labor by continuing to go to school and progressing in the right path. However, there are those that choose to enter other areas such as criminal activities and gangs. Prosecuting these individuals only to see them back in the same position some time later is not the ultimate goal of the juvenile justice system. Delinquency prevention and intervention programs are able to mold the juvenile so that they conform to the norms of society and go on to lead productive lives.

Children, starting as early as elementary school, are being educated on substance abuse. As of 2013, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, D.A.R.E., administers a school-based substance abuse, gang, and violence prevention program in 75 percent of the United States school districts. Since 1983, 70,000 police officers have taught the D.A.R.E. program to approximately 114 million elementary through high school students in the United States alone ("Is the D.A.R.E. Program Good for America's Kids K-12?"). This program is aimed at preventing drug use in elementary, middle, and high school students. A needle-exchange program implicitly encourages the exact opposite message, condoning immoral and illicit behavior. Governments should focus on discouraging drug use, providing more productive treatment for recovery, and punishing drug users instead of supplying the materials to continue their addiction. Young children have the potential to take more risks and must receive a clear message on drugs, which should coincide with the no tolerance policy they are being taught in school with implementation of the D.A.R.E. program. A needle-exchange program is more of a hopeful harm reduction campaign that sends the wrong message to young children and society as a whole. If there is to be a positive change in America regarding intravenous drug use, then the government and school programs all need to be on the same page; we

Another prevention program is the school-based Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (D.A.R.E). D.A.R.E. is a non-profit tax-exempt organization that oversees the training law enforcement receives in order to provide education in the schools on drug use. D.A.R.E also markets for the program, licenses merchandise, and conducts assessment and research. D.A.R.E has 4 regional training centers that are funded annually by the U.S. Department of Justice grant. In addition, states receive individual funding from different sources (Cost of D.A.R.E, 2014).

Drug Abuse Resistance Education programs are the most widely used drug education programs targeted towards elementary children in the United States. Since the 1980’s over a million children across the United States have been introduced to the D.A.R.E’ program. The program began implementing there curriculum into school system to educate children on drugs and gangs. The common goal for this program is to deter students from the hard life of drugs and gangs and help them steer on the right path.

A long-term study conducted by Bureau of Justice Statistics found that the average five-year recidivism rates of 404,638 prisoners released in 2005 is 76.6% among thirty states in America (Matthew, Alexia, & Howard, 2014, p. 1). In other words, most of the released prisoners did not escape the cycle of recidivism and were sent back to the prison after time. This indicates that the present American justice system, which focuses on punishment as Benson (2003) noted, fails to rehabilitate prisoners efficiently and is far from achieving the goal of reducing crime rates (p. 46). What is more, the recidivism of prisoners is becoming a great plague of society, because it not only imposes a threat to public safety but also places an enormous

Much with the Correction system, its purpose to keep offenders away from the general public

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program known as D.A.R.E has become a very widespread and popular program throughout the United States. The program appeals to all ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic lines, which is a large part of the reason why the DARE program has grown exponentially. The program’s basic premise was meant to introduce kids to the danger of drugs, before the drugs got to them. The implementation of the DARE program appeared to be what America needed to begin to put a dent in the war on drugs.

Intervention and prevention programs play a big role is reducing recidivism. As we know some programs can be beneficial, however some others have less effect on reducing recidivism. However there are three principal of effective Intervention: The risk principal, the need principal and the treatment principal. First let’s look at Risk principal which focuses strictly on individuals that could benefits from the program. Not every program can be applied to all offenders or all at risk individuals. Each program has its own targeted population which is very important that intervention program is targeting the right group of individuals. For example we cannot simply target city that has lower poverty level. Because it doesn’t mean that everyone who

Drug Abuse Resistance Education, also affectionately referred to as the D.A.R.E. program. Using a combination of a cuddly lion mascot, a friendly neighborhood police officer, and an overused and stolen tagline, the D.A.R.E. program is taught nationally to middle school and high school children. Despite D.A.R.E. and all of its efforts, opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999 in the U.S. Even though the D.A.R.E. provided police officer would beg to differ, the “Just Say No” abstinence approach is just not effective. On the other hand drugs and alcohol abuse are things that people need to be made aware of and at their own pace need to be taught the necessary skills to avoid those situations.

In his famous book, “A control theory of delinquency”, Hirschi (1969) proposed the Social Bond theory, which assumes that all people would naturally commit crimes if it wasn 't for restraints on the selfish tendencies that exist in every individual. Similar to some religions’ claim, this theory also assumes all individuals are born with a tendency toward inherent drives and selfishness. Therefore, something that could keep people away from committing the crime or delinquency was needed, and this thing should be social bonds, according to Hirschi. As he wrote in his book, “a person is free to commit delinquent acts because his ties to the conventional order have somehow been broken (1969:3).”

D.A.R.E., the acronym for Drug Abuse Resistance Education is a program that educates young children in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools intended for students in Kindergarten through to the 12th grade to prevent and decline drug and alcohol abuse, peer pressure, violence and many other potential future dangers for children. The program consists of lessons and activities that involve more participation, active learning, supplemental take home activities, and optimal lessons. D.A.R.E. started in 1983 in Los Angeles, because drug and alcohol abuse was overwhelming police departments and worrying neighborhoods. By 1989, the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance had

Initially the D.A.R.E. program was designed for elementary school students, with a middle school curriculum added in 1986, and a high school version developed in 1988 (Des Jarlais et al., 2006; Ennett et al., 1994). The elementary curriculum was then modified in 2003 (Vincus et al., 2010). The D.A.R.E. program “seeks to motivate students to avoid using substances, to improve their capacity to make prosocial decisions, to resist inducements from peers to use substances, and to develop and practice refusal skills” (Vincus et al., 2010). In addition, D.A.R.E. courses are taught by local police officers as a way to introduce students to law enforcement agents “through nonthreatening and fun activities” (Des Jarlais et al., 2006). Although the law enforcement officers that run D.A.R.E. programs receive substantial training on the curriculum, they are not formal educators (i.e. they are not certified teachers). The teaching methods used for the classes are very lecture heavy and are not conducive to interactive lessons (Ennett et al., 1999). The format and nature of the program make it difficult for kids and teens to become engaged in the classes.

It is focused on strengthening resistant factors, improving self-esteem, developing social skills and delivering awareness of the negative outcomes, mostly related to crimes and violence among drug-users. The program is applied to the students of elementary, middle and high school and conducted by trained law enforcement personnel (95). Research analysis from 1994 to 2002 have showed ineffectiveness of D.A.R.E. program on the rates of drug use, which led to reduction of federal funds. A few modifications, including intervention of new teaching methods and concentration on boosting protective factors in high risk students, have been applied in order to improve program’s outcome. However, the results of new program are still not clear. Most of the schools continue to use the program, since parents believe in its positive results, such as improvement of children’s awareness about drugs and strengthening their resisting skills (100). However, these programs are poorly financed and have not been updated (100). A few districts have dropped the program due to unclear outcomes and a lack of support from federal funds

It is a common believe that adolescents require a special system thru which be processed because they are “youth who are in a transitional stage of development…young offenders that are neither innocent children nor mature adults…” (Nelson, 2012). Because juveniles are in a process of constant development sociologically, psychologically and physiologically, the juvenile court system focuses on alternative sentences and the creation of programs that will offer them rehabilitation instead of incarceration. However, in cases of extraordinary circumstances, the juvenile system shifts from looking at rehabilitation as a first choice to accountability and punishment (Read, n.d). All levels of society are collectively involved in delinquency

The social environment of teens holds an enormous influence on how the teens act and behave. Teens are easily influenced by their surroundings and they look to others for guidance. Their behavior results from that of the parent and peer influences. Parents play a particularly influential role in their child’s life and it is up to them to make sure that they are leading their sons or daughters in the right directions. A teen’s peers also play a large role in how the teen behaves when the parents are not around. A teen’s social environment, consisting of family and peers, plays a vital role in their life, therefore becoming the ultimate cause of juvenile delinquency.