NCJ Number
163962
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 35 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1996) Pages: 113-130
Date Published
1996
Length
18 pages
Annotation
A juvenile delinquency prevention project that operated during 4 days of the 1994 Easter vacation in one of the public housing communities in Edinburgh, Scotland was studied with respect to the interagency planning and communications involved.
Abstract
The Craigmiller Youth Challenge was a multiagency initiative. Information was gathered from conversations with the youth taking part in the activities, videotapes of activities, transcripts of the planning meetings, and semi- structured followup interviews with members of the steering and organizing committees. The detailed field observations were analyzed to determine the competing professional discourses used by the representatives of the various involved agencies and to test for the emergency of hybrid discourse that composed a shared vocabulary. Results revealed that the central term of discourse was the distinction between process and entertainment. Process activities were focused on the development of life skills, while other activities consisted of pure entertainment. However, the distinction between process and entertainment activities was not completely clear-cut. Findings also indicated that the linguistic practices of various professionals did not constitute an insurmountable barrier to cooperation within the context of this program. Notes and 19 references