NCJ Number
167988
Journal
Georgetown Journal on Fighting Poverty Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1995) Pages: 245-270
Date Published
1995
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This paper argues that a national policy of early childhood intervention would be best suited to advance crime and delinquency prevention, and it could be implemented through the coordination of existing Federal programs.
Abstract
This proposal suggests that existing and additional funds be made available to the public and private nonprofit agencies that administer local Head Start programs. Some of the funds should come from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). All funds should be distributed through a coordinated OJJDP program designed to promote the common goals of both the Department of Health and Human Services' Head Start Program and the OJJDP. Part I of this article surveys some of the childhood predictors of later antisocial, delinquent, and criminal behavior. Part II reviews programs of early childhood intervention, including the Head Start program. Part III presents the argument that a cooperative, early-childhood delinquency prevention program should be implemented on a national scale. The program should incorporate the common purposes and concerns of two existing government entities: Head Start and OJJDP. Because Head Start is a well-established program and has the benefit of some evaluative scrutiny, the proposed program would reap more from its investment by enhancing Head Start programs and research than by financing programs that are duplicative or that attack the problem at a later point in a child's life. Part III also discusses the structural, social, and political benefits and obstacles of such an enterprise. 149 notes