Chapter 11 Flashcards
Delinquency prevention refers to
intervening in young people’s lives before they engage in delinquency (non-justice)
delinquency control or delinquency repression
Involves any justice program or policy designed to prevent the occurrence of a future delinquent act.
Some examples of nonjustice delinquency prevention or alternative delinquency prevention:
YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs of America
Public health approach:
Preventing diseases and injuries
Primary prevention (public health approach)
focuses on improving the general well-being of individuals through such measures as access to health care services and general prevention education, and modifying conditions in the physical environment that are conducive to delinquency through such measures as removing abandoned vehicles and improving the appearance of buildings.
Secondary prevention (public health approach)
focuses on intervening with children and young people who are potentially at risk for becoming offenders, as well as the provision of neighborhood programs to deter known delinquent activity.
Tertiary prevention (public health approach)
focuses on intervening with adjudicated juvenile offenders through such measures as substance abuse treatment and imprisonment. Here, the goal is to reduce repeat offending or recidivism
Developmental perspective:
Interventions, risk and protective factors, designed to prevent the development of criminal potential in individuals
Prevention activities are organized around different stages of the life course:
Childhood and adolescence
Early childhood delinquency prevention
Aims at positively influencing the early risk factors of delinquency and criminal offending that continue into adulthood
Some of these early risk factors of childhood delinquency:
Poverty, hyperactivity or impulsiveness, inadequate parental supervision, and harsh or inconsistent discipline
Home-based programs:
Involves the provision of support for families
Example of home visitation:
Nurse-family partnership started in Elmira, New York
Improve the outcomes of pregnancy, quality of care that parents provide to their children, and women’s own personal life-course development
Another study showed that early family/parent training is an effective intervention for reducing
antisocial behavior and delinquency
Most widely cited parenting program:
Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC)
Some of the key features of preschool programs are:
Developmentally appropriate learning curricula
A wide array of cognitive-based enriching activities
Activities for parents
Programs targeting teenagers include:
Mentoring
School-based programs
Job training
Mentoring
Nonprofessional volunteers spend time with at-risk youth
Jolliffe and Farrington found a…reduction in delinquency, and the program is more effective when the duration of contact between mentor and mentee is longer
10%
Tolan and his associates found that the two elements most heavily influenced by mentoring were
reduction of delinquency and reduction of aggression
Research shows that the most successful school programs target an array of risk factors:
Family and school environment
Target youth with highest risk for future delinquency
School-based programs need to be intensive
Engage parents in helping student to learn Reducing negative peer influences through information about gun carrying, drug use, and gang involvement
Job corps
A federal program established in 1964 for disadvantaged, unemployed youths to improve the employability of participants by offering vocational skills training, basic education and health care
YouthBuild U.S.A.
Started in 1978 by a group of young people in NY
Focuses on building or renovating affordable housing and provides educational services
Delinquent offenders
Those who fall under the jurisdictional age limit and commit an act that violates the penal code
Status offenders
Persons in need of supervision (PINS or CHINS)
Age of jurisdiction varies by states
Others set the upper limit at age 17, and others set it at under age 16
Juvenile justice systems exist in…states
all
Juvenile justice process: police investigation
Have authority to investigate and release or send to juvenile court (file petition)
Juvenile justice process: Detention
If petition is filed, juvenile is referred to court
Decision as to whether the child should be allowed to remain in the community, or be placed in secure facility
Requires a detention hearing
Pretrial procedures
Adjudication hearing involves informing juveniles of their rights, voluntary plea, and understanding of charges/consequences of plea
Adjudication
Trial stage of juvenile court
Juveniles entitled to due process rights at adjudication hearing:
Right to counsel, freedom from self-incrimination, right to confront and cross-examine witness and in some cases, the right to a jury trial
Juvenile justice process: Disposition
If found guilty, decision regarding what treatment child needs should be made Bifurcated process
Hearing could result in a variety of treatment outcomes
Juvenile justice process: Treatment
After disposition, delinquents may be placed in correctional treatment centers
Juvenile court seeks to avoid stigma and labeling
Uses different terms:
E.g., crime vs. petition, secure pretrial holding facilities vs. detention centers, trial vs. hearing
A comprehensive juvenile justice strategy
Focuses on crime prevention and expanding options for dealing with juvenile offenders
Addresses link between crime and poverty, child abuse, drugs, weapons, and school behavior
A comprehensive juvenile justice strategy components:
Intervention for at-risk teenage youths
Graduated sanction to hold juvenile offenders accountable
Proper utilization of detention and confinement
Placement of serious juvenile offenders in adult courts
A comprehensive juvenile justice strategy benefits:
Fewer youths entering the juvenile justice system
Decreased costs of juvenile corrections
Fewer delinquents becoming adult offenders
Early risk factors suggest future delinquency:
Low intelligence, impulsiveness, poor parental supervision, parental conflict, socially disorganized neighborhoods
Prevention of delinquency addresses risk factors
Reduce costs
Gain public support
Early childhood programs
e.g., Head Start
Interventions
Focused on youth considered at higher risk for delinquent behavior
Designed to ward off involvement in more serious delinquency
Various programs for interventions exist:
Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, CASASTART
Goal of…are to limit the most restrictive sanctions to the most dangerous offenders, while increasing restrictions/intensity of treatment as offenders move from minor to serious offenses
graduated sanctions
Many argue that institutions are…and encourage…of juvenile offenders
over utilized; deinstitutionalization
Goal of alternative courts is to provide
special services to youths, and alleviate case flow problems resulting from overcrowding
Drug courts
Focus on providing treatment for juveniles accused of drug-related acts
About 451 courts around the country, with 48 more courts being planned
Teen courts
Courts that make use of peer juries to decide non-serious delinquency cases
Alternative to traditional forms of juvenile court with 1,048 courts in operation in 49 statesServe an estimated 110,000 to 125,000 young offenders each year
Johnny is 13, impulsive, failing school, and is poorly supervised by his parents. He was placed into Big Brothers/Big Sisters. He was matched with a male volunteer who encourages and supports him in various academic ventures and serves as a role model.
What broad category of delinquency prevention is being provided to Johnny through his participation in Big Brothers/Big Sisters?
Developmental perspective
Intervention with adjudicated juvenile offenders where the goal is to reduce repeat offending or recidivism through such measures as substance abuse treatment and imprisonment is:
tertiary prevention
Child abuse, poverty, intrafamilial violence, and harsh punishment increase the risk of occurrence of a future delinquent act and are considered:
risk factors
If the youth is adjudicated delinquent, the court must decide an outcome or treatment approach; this decision is made during the:
dispositional hearing
Programs or policies designed to prevent juvenile delinquency that include police making an arrest as part of an operation to address gang problems are considered:
delinquency control
Which type of service is the best example of delinquency control?
wilderness programs
Using the public health approach, _____ focuses on improving the general well-being of individuals through such measures as access to health care services.
primary prevention
What is the focus of tertiary prevention?
to reduce repeat offending or recidivism
Which approach is informed generally by motivational or human advancement theories on delinquency?
developmental prevention
A developmental prevention program that focuses on strengthening a child’s educational skills focuses on _____.
protective factors
A popular form of family support among home-based programs is _____.
home visitation
The “mythical punitive public” refers to the _____.
overestimate of the punitiveness of the general public on the part of politicians
Research uncovered which major benefit of the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP)?
a reduction in child abuse and neglect
The comparison group of subjects within an experiment that does not receive the program is referred to as the _____
control group
What is a key feature of highly structured, cognitive-based preschool programs?
a wide array of cognitive-based enriching activities
Which program is a new federal initiative that provides funding to faith- and community-based agencies in order to mentor youth involved in the juvenile justice system, foster care, and reentry programs?
Mentoring Initiative for System Involved Youth
Systematic reviews of the effects of mentoring have revealed that the largest effects involve _____.
reductions in delinquency and aggression
A comprehensive review of school-based programs reveals that the main difference between programs that work and those that do not is that _____.
successful programs target an array of important risk factor
Children who fall under the jurisdictional age limit and who commit an act in violation of the penal code are labeled ____
delinquents
Most children come into the justice system as a result of _____.
contact with a police officer
A hearing by a judicial officer of a juvenile court to determine whether a juvenile is to be held or released while proceedings are pending in the case is called a(n) _____.
detention hearing
Rather than being indicted for a crime, as in the adult justice system, juveniles have a(n) _____ filed against them.
petition
The criminal trial is called a(n) _____ in the juvenile justice system.
hearing
For young children, one of the most important risk factors that may lead to future delinquency is _____.
impulsiveness
What is a potential benefit of teen court?
accountability
The main difference between delinquency prevention and delinquency control is that prevention _____.
does not involve the juvenile justice system
There is _____ demand for early prevention programs and _____ demand for increased use of incarceration.
a growing; little
Research has shown that mentoring and other types of delinquency prevention programs offered _____, particularly for high-risk youths, may end up causing more harm than good.
in group settings
Under the _____ philosophy, juvenile justice procedures are informal and nonadversarial, invoked for juvenile offenders rather than against them.
parens patriae
What is one of the fastest growing delinquency intervention programs in the country, with more than 1,048 in operation in 49 states and the District of Columbia?
teen courts
