Prevention and Occurrence of Juvenile Delinquency

Every day, crime shatters the peace in our Nation's neighborhoods. Violent crime and the fear it causes, cripple our society, threaten personal freedom, and fray the ties that are essential for healthy communities. No corner of America is safe from increasing levels of criminal violence, including violence committed by and against juveniles (U.S. Department of Justice, 1996).

There are many factors that are significant to the occurrence or prevention of juvenile delinquency, but some of the most important are that juvenile offenders are becoming more violent, increase of female offenders, lack of education, substance abuse, and whether maturity will decrease the propensity to decrease crime. It is believed that with the help of family, community, law enforcement, and courts, juvenile delinquency can be decreased.

Family strengthening programming is predicated on the notion that certain risk factors may predispose children to later delinquency. Some of these risk factors, such as degree of parental involvement with youth, level of family stress, or level of parent-child communication, are related to juveniles' family lives. Family-based programs seek to alter these family-related risk factors in order to reduce the likelihood of children turning to delinquency. 

The FAST program (Families and Schools Together) is a family therapy-based program that emphasizes healthy family interactions. The program is ten sessions long and includes parent-to-parent discussions and support, family activities and meals, and parent to child communications. A pretest-posttest design was used to assess program effects, with measures including assessments of conduct disorder, aggression, anxiety, and psychotic behavior. Overall, researchers found significant improvements in juvenile mental health, behavior problems, and ability to focus. At two- and four-year follow-ups, the evaluators found that the program effects were maintained (http://www.jrsa.org/jjec/programs/family/). Review APA guidelines.