NCJ Number
80112
Date Published
1981
Length
45 pages
Annotation
This report describes the successful resurrection of a delinquency prevention program in the Ottawa, Canada, schools which gave credits to graduate students from the University of Ottawa's Department of Criminology for working with potentially delinquent children.
Abstract
Before rejuvenating a program which had lapsed in 1974, professionals from the university and the board of education examined research on other delinquency prevention programs, problems in the original Ottawa school project, and existing delinquency efforts in Ottawa. They concluded that trait theory-based programs were singularly ineffective and that the original project failed because no serious attempt had been made to structure it or give student workers a theoretical base for their activities. Research also indicated that student participation in a preventive program was beneficial for both students and children. Using these findings, the program was reorganized and two graduate students were placed in the Overbrook Community School, an elementary school in a lower class neighborhood in the academic year 1978/79. Students were encouraged to experiment with any approach that would divert children from delinquent tendencies, but regular supervisory meetings were held to discuss the causes of deviance and reasons for failure or progress from a theoretical perspective. The workers initially focused on three boys identified as predelinquent by school authorities but encountered gangs and a major problem which they characterized as the Friday night syndrome (when youths were left on their own with absolutely nothing to do). To fill this void, the school gymnasium was opened on Friday nights and the students organized athletic activities for the community's youth. Children were also introduced to the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club, taken on cultural enrichment trips, and involved in group discussions. Problems in a summer program conducted by a volunteer student are described, followed by a summary of the project's second year of activities in the Overbrook School and a special school for children with learning difficulties. An evaluation of the project concludes that it was worthwhile and then examines the experience in terms of delinquency prevention theories. Over 50 references are appended.