Responses
I enjoyed reading your post, as it is quite informative. I also concur with you on the delinquency prevention and diversion programs. The three levels of crime prevention include primary preventing, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention. Usually, primary crime prevention focuses on stopping the crime before it involves reducing the chances of committing crimes and strengthening the community structures. Secondary crime prevention seeks to focus on changing people, especially those at the risk of immersing in the criminal career. The tertiary crime prevention bringing change to the people who have already committed crimes. There are also different types of delinquency prevention programs. Some of them include the mentoring programs, the after school reaction programs, bullying prevention, conflict resolution and violence, prevention curriculums, classroom and behavior management programs, school organization programs, etc. the assumptions of these delinquency programs involve providing education that will help the youth to understand the adverse effects of delinquency activities and the ways of committing crimes. I see you have mentioned the Chicago Art Project as an effort to avoid delinquency, and it involved churches, social clubs, community communities and sponsored recreational programs for juveniles. From my research, the Chicago area project has been in existence since 1979 and has weekly activities, which include sports, arts, crafts, and dance. The assumptions made in these programs are that keeping the youths occupied and showing some positivity in life encourages them to be involved in criminal activities.
I concur with you on your opinion that the assumptions on the delinquency programs are justified. I believe that thee programs are developed in the hope that the activities done in the programs will influence the youth positively and show them the value of being useful in the community. I believe that the programs give the youths some value in the community because I believe people turn to crime when they are either angry towards the community or when they are hopeless. It is true that when the schools, communities, and law enforcement agencies are involved, then the programs become more effective because the youths feel that they have support from the communities they live in. I also agree with you that the best way to prevent delinquencies is to stop them from ever occurring. Naturally, the best medicine towards a problem is preventing it from happening. It is easier to discourage youths from committing crimes than from changing them from a life of crime.
I also agree with you that the community is hesitant from financing these delinquency prevention crimes. Most feel that it is the responsibility of the government. Also, there is a notion all communities have that the government misuses funding. There lack of coordination and management in public funds and programs. I think the consequences of the public’s reluctance is that crimes continue to soar. The youths feel that the community owes them so much, and it doesn’t care, and they end up being bitter towards the community. The community also prefers to isolate and stigmatize offenders. It is true that to reduce delinquencies, the community and law enforcement should work together to fight stigma and support these youths.
References
National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice. (n.d). Levels of prevention. Retrieved from http://www.edjj.org/prevention/LevelsPrevention.html
Schlossman, S., Zellman, G., Shavelson, R. (n.d). Delinquency Prevention in South Chicago. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/94258NCJRS.pdf