Advances in prevention science in the past 25 years provide important direction for neighborhood and community efforts to improve the lives of youth. Prevention scientists have applied a public health approach to youth problems such as drug use and delinquency, and have shown that these problems can be prevented. The identification of risk and…

Serious delinquent youth who attended a moderately confrontive juvenile awareness program at San Quentin Prison showed an improvement in attitudes. Behaviorally, however, the program did not reduce delinquency overall. The only finding in favor of experimentals (N=53) showed those to be arrest-free longer than controls (N=55) in the study.…

Twenty young people with a history of incarceration, substance abuse and disconnection provided Whitelion with insight into "what worked" in changing their at-risk behaviours. The answer was obvious--state support beyond 18 years of age, perhaps until the mid-twenties. These young people require specialised intervention, and help…

For 3.5 years, North Carolina has conducted a randomized experimental program designed to provide intensive supervision services for undisciplined youths (status offenders) placed under the protective supervision of the juvenile courts. Updated results from an ongoing systematic evaluation of the project indicate that, for undisciplined youths…

Project About Face is a joint effort on the part of the Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court, Youth Services, Inc., the Naval Air Station at Millington, Correctional Counseling, Inc., and the Bureau of Educational Research Services at Memphis State University. The goals of the project were to implement a program of education and training that is…

Determined a prisoner-run delinquency prevention program's effectiveness in the prevention of delinquency in previously arrested youths. Found that the program had no effect on the delinquent behavior of females. Males who attended the program, however, were arrested at a significantly higher rate than counterparts who did not hear the prisoners'…

This book provides a detailed review of a National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded, long-term clinical trial of the Family Empowerment Intervention (FEI). FEI is a systems-oriented, low-cost intervention delivered in the home by trained nontherapists for high-risk youths who have been arrested and their families. The subjects were a group of over…

Uses a review-of-reviews approach across four areas (substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, school failure, and juvenile delinquency and violence) to identify characteristics consistently associated with effective prevention programs. Programs were comprehensive, included varied teaching methods, provided sufficient dosage, were theory driven,…

Examines an intensive mentoring program that focuses on youth deemed at-risk for juvenile delinquency or mental illness. Results indicate significant improvement in problematic behaviors for the intervention group. Mentoring appeared to affect African American youth differently than Caucasian and Latino youth. Findings support the positive…

This study assessed the impact of a prevention program on the growth of delinquency from 13 to 16 years of age and examined whether its impact operated through a chain of events compatible with many developmental models. Analysis showed that the program had an indirect effect on the growth of delinquency from 13 to 16 years of age. (Author)

This document presents the 1989 Annual Report of Oregon's Youth Coordinating Council. It notes that the Youth Coordinating Council has chosen to focus its efforts on services to two of the most difficult groups to serve: teenage parents and offenders. Section A of the document is a letter to Oregon's governor from the chair of the Youth…

Juvenile crime and its immediate and long-term economic and human costs have become a national concern. Programs to prevent and reduce delinquency have developed across the country and one such program in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (which includes Pittsburgh) is described in this bulletin. The Allegheny program exemplifies a large-scale,…

Thousands of children run away from home or placements each year. The many programs for these children require evaluation to determine effectiveness; one runaway program for at-risk children is examined here. It was felt that if the runaway youth could receive some counseling, then it might help these children and families to solve some of their…

Drug abuse and crime rates in the United States have surged to alarming levels in the 1990s and could increase to epidemic proportions if not addressed appropriately. The identification and evaluation of the programs that Idaho utilizes in fighting crime and reducing drug use are covered in this booklet. The report focuses on two different…

The efforts of the Colorado Division of Youth Services to develop a program that would reduce the inappropriate use of secure detention of juveniles by providing intake/screening units and various nonsecure alternative detention services are described. Program goals are discussed and criteria on which detention decisions were based for the…