NCJ Number
219921
Date Published
2003
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This paper reviews the existing scientific evidence on the effectiveness of community-based programs to prevent delinquency and crime.
Abstract
The review reached the conclusion that community-based prevention does not, at the present time, demonstrate evidence of proven effectiveness in reducing delinquency or crime. However, this is by no means a claim that nothing works and that community-based efforts to prevent delinquency and crime should be abandoned. All three community-based approaches reviewed in this paper were found to be promising in preventing delinquency or crime. Gang member intervention programs were found to be promising in preventing delinquency and crime when they were focused on reducing cohesion among youth gangs and individual members. For community-based mentoring assessment of effectiveness was confounded by high quality evaluation designs, mixed results on delinquency and crime, and related outcomes, such as disruptive and aggressive behavior, and evidence of harmful effects. For after-school recreation, all three of the programs had a scientific methods score of three or higher and each program produced desirable effects on delinquency or crime. This paper focused on the community as the setting for programs to prevent delinquency and crime. From this perspective, three different prevention modalities were identified as most relevant and hence, are covered here: gang member intervention, community-based mentoring, and after-school recreation. Twenty-two programs were reviewed from the 3 prevention modalities. Table, notes, and references