Preventative Intervention Program

Incidents like abuse from family members, bullying, neglect, and sexual abuse are the most common. Repeated abuse can lead to psychological damage and emotional scarring. Not only are traumatic psychological experiences causing these juveniles to commit violent crimes. Situations, where children have poor education, a household without discipline, peer pressure, inadequate role models, low income, and substance abuse coupled with the wrong environment, can lead to a life of crime. These negative influences guide these juveniles on the wrong path towards crime. However, it does not mean these juveniles cannot succeed; it is however up to the juvenile to make the correct choices in their

An estimated 9.2 million to 15.8 million children are considered "at-risk" in this country encompassing all ages from 13 to 19 years old. These youth are at-risk because they are at a crossroad: one leads to successful transition to adulthood, the other to dependency and negative long-term consequences. Youth typically considered or identified as at-risk are more likely to become pregnant, use drugs and/or alcohol, drop out of school, be unemployed, engage in violence and face an increased likelihood of a host of mental health problems, which in turn places them at high risk for entering the juvenile and criminal justice system.

One of the ways in which BUILD works to combat violence in communities focuses on prevention. Attempting to intervene after one has already adopted a violent lifestyle proves little use. Therefore, BUILD engages children in structured programs such as providing assistance in school work, service learning projects, recreational activities, and workshops that teach valuable life-skills to ensure that at-risk children have the skills and support to lead productive lives and resist the temptations of gangs, drugs, and

Crime and violence is a huge issue nationwide. Various strategies and programs have been implemented to help reduce such from occurring. Nearly half of crimes in the United States are committed by youth 10 to 17 years old. Juvenile crime increases each year at a rate double of adult crime. One way to help deter juvenile crime was the creation of the “Scared Straight Program”.

Juveniles committing crimes, being arrested and going to jails and prisons, is a sad fact that has hit every city, in every state in the United States of America. It is not a hard thing to comprehend, turn on the TV and watch the news. Every night there is surely to be a report about a crime committed by one of America’s youth. Many people question the reason for such high numbers of juveniles committing crimes; others turn a blind eye and refuse to acknowledge the fact that every day more children of this country are slipping into the life of crime. Some concerned members of society ask what can be done to stop it; how can they help? The answer is action! Law enforcement, as well as Local, State, and

Youth today are dealing with violence that’s happening across the globe. It is unknown to predict a state of action that the delinquent will do, but there are many preventions that we are able to take advantage of. Violence is one of the greatest fear that many of our youths may experience. Many recent activities that occurred with school shootings, those that are domestic or foreign abused, mass media of current brutality, even interpersonal conflicts may have conflicted with the state of mind that is threatening to our community. Instead, we can support with many preventable delinquency programs with the troubled youth that helps them get involved with the community such as afterschool programs, clubs, volunteer work, or even booth camps are one of many to interact

There is a range of prevention and intervention strategies that schools can out in place to promote and maintain student engagement in the mainstream school setting where possible. The strategies are outlined in depth in the Student Engagement Policy Guidelines and they include some of the following:

San Jose Police Chief, Bill Landsdowne, stated that, “[l]ocking up kids is the easiest way. But once they get in the juvenile justice system, it’s very hard to get them out” (Holman & Ziedenberg, date). Detaining youth, in particular non-violent offenders, has more of a negative, long-term impact on youth as well as the community. With the inception of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, the use of retribution is being pushed aside for more restorative and rehabilitation efforts. States that have embraced this initiative are finding that not only are the numbers of youth being detained decreasing but that alternatives to detention are providing opportunity for juveniles to become productive members of the community. All this effort without increasing risk to the community and safety issues. More importantly this initiative works in addressing the underlying issues causing delinquent behavior.

In the criminal justice world, juvenile offenders are of particular concern. In 2014 alone it is estimated that over one million juveniles were arrested in America (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention). According to the National Institute of Justice, juveniles who begin a life of delinquency early are more likely to continue that trend into adulthood, and that once they enter the adult criminal justice system; they are more likely to become worse in their criminal conduct. While most juveniles are likely to stop delinquency by their early twenties, those who continue are more likely to engage in increasingly violent offenses. Maltreatment of juveniles is also a concern in America. In 2014, an estimated 700,000 children were referred to child welfare agencies across the United States.

In late 2014, there were over 50,000 adolescents under the age of 18 in juvenile detention facilities and over 4,000 adolescents under the age of 18 held in adult detention facilities. (Juveniles in Corrections: Demographics, n.d.). In 2007, juvenile arrest rates accounted for over 15% of total arrests (McGlynn, Hahn, & Hagan, 2012). Although the number of juveniles held in detention facilities is down from over 100,000 around the turn of the century, it are still a significant number of institutionalized youth (Juveniles in Corrections: Demographics, n.d.). Many youth who are offenders in the juvenile court system go on to become offenders in the adult court system (Karger & Stoesz, 2014). One method of therapy that is heavily used throughout the juvenile justice system is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). With many years of evidence-based research backing it up, CBT is used to try to break the cycle of thoughts and behaviors that lead to criminal and anti-social actions. The CBT approach aims to help at-risk youth make better choices by addressing the cognitive and behavioral choices that impact their ability to function in open society. This includes the use of behavior assessments and other tools to gather information about what level the at-risk youth is functioning on and then work to address the concerns

In Brownsville, the vast majority of juveniles had at least one immediate family member or friend who had served time in jail. After having so many people in their lives serving time behind bars, the law didn’t seem fair anymore, it didn’t seem predictable, and it didn’t seem like they could speak up and have their voices heard. In Brownsville, the police were seen as the enemy instead of as an ally. What Joanne Jaffe and her J-RIP taskforce did was to show families that had been on the wrong side of the law that the law could be on their side. In doing so, both the number of robberies and the number robbery arrests by J-RIPers plummeted. Within five years, the number of robberies in Brownsville dropped from approximately 130 in 2006 to 30

Interventions on all levels are important in the prevention and the assistance in helping at-risk youth. The Macro level of intervention is imperative on a larger spectrum of creating positive change and the development of larger systems to indirectly help those young adults who are struggling. This level of intervention is key in developing policy change, and helping communities to development initiatives with the expectation of reducing youth suffering homelessness, drug use, physical and sexual abuse, crime and other troubling conditions they may face as they transition to adulthood. Through research and the collection of analysis from both the state and national levels, we can develop an enhanced understanding of this vulnerable population and develop the programs and strategies necessary. Many social workers work closely with community members in this research and the development of interventions to address the large-scale problems faced by today’s at-risk youth.

The Pathways philosophy is to provide a complete package of prevention and treatment services designed to meet community needs. With their services they attempt to promote the growth of people toward higher levels of functioning, greater self-esteem, emotional maturity, competence, and self-responsibility. (Pathways, 2016)

Despite the fact that the research findings contribute to the literature on the implementation of preventive interventions, generalisations are limited by a number of constraints to be discussed. One may question the low number of participants in each study presented in this thesis. Collecting data from minority groups at schools in disadvantaged communities is extremely challenging and more so when financial constraints on the research exist. As an example, when information letters and consent forms were sent out for parents/guardians to authorise their children’s participation, the response rate was low. Parenting sessions were organised in some schools with the goal of increasing participation, but this occurred without great success. The

In the efforts to prevent the spread of the disease and make treatment available, to those that have HIV/AIDS is an urgent health problem in the district of Washington DC with an increase in the numbers of those infected by HIV/AIDs (Dcgov.org,2016). The targeted program would identify new HIV diagnoses more efficiently; expand surveillance data to help providers reengage those who are not receiving services; engage all relevant District agencies to improve access to housing for those who are living with HIV; expand access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) - a drug regimen proven effective in preventing infections among high-risk populations; and continue syringe access services and condom distribution (D.C. Department of Health, 2015). Similarly, targeted programs are interventions to prevention further issues.