Guide for Delinquency Prevention Programs Based in School Activities - A Working Paper

• NCJ Number: 80755
• Author(s): G Johnson; G Cohen; T Bird
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 47 pages
• Contract Number(s): J-LEAA-004-8
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Corporate Author: Westinghouse National Issues Ctr
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper is intended to help program developers initiate or refine self-contained delinquency prevention programs. These programs are designed to create school situations that discourage delinquent behavior and encourage law-abiding behavior.

Abstract

The self-contained programs described in this working paper are relatively short-term efforts designed to provide selected population segments of youth by themselves and others as useful, competent, belonging, and influential). The paper presents an overview of self-contained delinquency programs and their intended benefits, contrasts their value with that of larger scale efforts for selective organizational change, and explains why the focus is on schools. Recommended program content and activities are those that (1) result from negotiation with young participants, the adults who work with them, school personnel, and members of the larger community; (2) are described in terms of their positive, legitimate merits and not as measures for reducing delinquency; (3) provide increased opportunities for youth to work with each other and with adults as partners in shared tasks; and (4) employ special support services, primarily as a means to enlarge the contributions of participants. Recommended routines for the program in operation are those that build rewards, corrective feedback, and key information about the activity into day-to-day interaction; structure the program as a cooperative, rather than competitive, venture; and exploit opportunities to affect the participants' standing in other settings. The recommended program setting is one in which staffing, location, hours, and public image all confirm that the program is school-based and school-sponsored. The last chapter contains recommendations for initially assessing the prospects for a program, obtaining support for it, and developing a plan of action to launch the program. Footnotes are included. For the companion volume to this document, see NCJ 60362.