Juvenile Delinquency Prevention

Juvenile Delinquency Prevention
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Introduction
From time to time, there are cases where the teenagers and other under age children commit acts of crime that would otherwise charged as criminal if they were committed by adults. In such cases, the children involved are called juvenile delinquents (Greenwood, 2014). There are a number of offences these children can take part in and be booked being delinquent, among them are crimes against person, property, drugs abuse and possession as well as crimes that are committed against order in the public. There have been a lot of interventions that have been devised in an effort to bring down the acts of crime. Protection programs are some of the aspects that have been quite effective in the management of delinquent youths.
These are programs where those youths that are found to have the criminal tendencies, and those that have been affected can be taken in an effort to make sure that they do not further engage in the unruly behavior. Where the children that are deliquescent are handled with care, they end up become full blown criminals (Findyouthinfo.gov, 2014). Most of the adult criminals that are on the streets today have had some history with crime from the time they were children. Below are some of the programs that have been in place for some time now, categorized on the basis of their success. That is, those that have been effective, those that look promising and those that have had no effects whatsoever. The review sheds light on several facets of the programs in a bid to illuminate on the properties of each.
The programs
Adolescent Diversion Project (Michigan State University) is one of the many effective programs, which is university led, and relates to community services. The program uses three pronged perspective as a way of reducing the crimes among the youths. The program uses learning socially; bonding and social control and at the same applies the theories of social interactions. The social bonding and control bring about relationship bonding that reduces delinquency. The social learning on the other hand controls the relationships that bring about acquired traits of delinquency through interactions with peers and family among others. The theories of social interactions, dictate that the youths should not be labeled as deliquescent as this will encourage more intentional and unintentional delinquent behavior. The program has several goals that it strives to achieve (Crimesolutions.gov, 2014a). One of the goals is that they prevent further delinquency in the future by the children by working to strengthen their bonds with their family, friends and other individuals they may interact with. At the same time they strive to make sure that the youths have increased access to the resources in the communities where they live. There is also a goal on protecting the youths from stigma within their social lives.
The main participants include the Ingham community members, juvenile court, Ingham County members and the Michigan State University. To assist the youths the program has devised framework that is based on strength. Students from the university, who have volunteered to assist, interact with the youths on 6-8 hours a week during the 18 weeks of the program intervention. The youths are given special attention where their needs are attended to as per their specifics. Through the interaction with the volunteers, the youths can learn about real life skills, such employment, family relations, academics and how to spend their free time in the most productive way (Crimesolutions.gov, 2014a). The program addresses the training in two phases. The first phase is within the first 12 weeks, where the youths are given the life skills on behavior and advocacy, in the last four weeks the volunteers spend less time with the youths where they act as guardians and consultants.
4th R Curriculum is one of the programs that is looking promising but has not quite had significant breakthrough. To help the youths reduce their acts of crime, it addresses the various issues associated with early adolescent complications and the pressures associated with the stage. They also teach the youths on skills related to making sound decisions especially around pe...