Presents five principles which yield predictions about deterrence of illegal acts by the use of negative sanctions in the form of testable hypotheses, including intensity, temporal proximity, availability of reward, schedule of delivery, and availability of alternative behaviors. Suggests application of any principle of punishment is premature…

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.…

The role of the family has historically been recognized as a significant influence in the prevention and treatment of delinquent behavior among troubled youth. Though youth desire their own sense of significance, competence, and power, positive parental influence is vital in the early formation of the youth's personality. (Author)

Reports findings of a study of law-violating youth groups and group members in the United States. Number of groups, membership, geographical distribution, and relationships between variables such as number of gangs and city size are reported. (RH)

Literature on truancy shows strong relationship between school attendance problems and eventual withdrawal from school. On the basis of the assumption that the truant youth is a "potential dropout" and in view of limited literature on truants alone, truants and dropouts are considered to have similar attributes in this review. (Author)

Considers the contributions that psychology has made to the juvenile justice system in the areas of theory, research, practice, and public policy. Calls for the increasing involvement of psychologists in order to enhance the well-being of children and youth. (Author/GC)

This article describes attitudes and behaviors common to all alcoholics and some of the symptoms most frequently associated with the teenage alcoholic. (Author)

Presents logical, theoretical, and empirical arguments for a new rehabilitative agenda for juvenile justice, based on positive principles of youth development. Offers critical examination of dominant intervention paradigms within juvenile justice, compares underlying assumptions of a competency-based rehabilitative model with deficit-based…

Reviews the efforts of prevention-oriented scientists in studying successful outcomes of children with early patterns of maladaptive behaviors. Uses a personal narrative to illustrate the importance of trying to understand the resilient life patterns that lead children to succeed in life, rather than focusing on reasons why they fail. (RJM)

Investigated whether runaway behavior could be related to six problematic areas. Selected scales of the Personality Inventory for Children, representing the six areas, were hypothesized to discriminate between an adolescent runaway group (N=60) and a control group (N-60). The runaway group was not significantly different from a known clinical…

Defines community level interventions for prevention and health promotion, describing their appeal, offering examples of community level interventions that demonstrate their promise, summarizing literature reviews that document that the promise is not realized regularly, and proposing that models to bridge the gap between science and practice via…

Reviews changing patterns of health and illness that have led to increased interest in the role of patient and provider behaviors, discussing the advantages of using health care settings as prevention sites. Presents examples of successful behaviorally-based prevention programs, offering evidence supporting their cost-effectiveness. Describes…

Discusses how service learning can play an integral role in reclaiming youth. Advocates service learning as an effective part of the reclaiming process because it engages a variety of senses and makes learning more accessible for students with different learning styles. (GCP)

Assessed how the youth empowerment process encouraged positive youth development. Observation, interview, and focus group data from an urban community health promotion project indicated that practitioners created environments conducive to adolescents taking responsibility for their quality of life by welcoming and enabling youth. Power was…

Traces the emergence of engagement mentoring, which seeks to re-engage socially excluded youth with the formal labor market by altering their attitudes, values, and beliefs. Engagement mentoring has been promoted in European and British policy as an holistic response to social exclusion. (Contains 62 references.) (GCP)