NCJ Number
207784
Date Published
2001
Length
36 pages
Annotation
After an overview of research on risk factors for child delinquency (ages 7-12), this chapter describes promising school and community programs designed to prevent childhood delinquency.
Abstract
The chapter opens with a discussion of criminological and developmental theories of antisocial behavior, with emphasis on how these theories identify school and community influences on offending. The authors also consider whether these theories distinguish between early and later offending. This discussion is the basis for examining empirically validated risk factors for child delinquency that exist within the school and community domains. A review of current data on the role of schools and communities in the etiology of delinquency and violence notes that little empirical evidence exists on school and community predictors of child delinquency. This is followed by a review of school and community interventions that have proven effective in either reducing existing antisocial behavior or preventing it from beginning in children under 13 years old. The programs profiled include classroom and school-wide behavior management programs; bullying prevention projects; curricula in social competence, conflict resolution, and violence prevention; and classroom-based programs designed to improve the skills of teachers and parents in managing, socializing, and educating students. Regarding community interventions, there is some evidence that well-designed and implemented mentoring programs and after-school recreation programs that include skills training for participants can reduce child delinquency. The authors recommend more controlled studies of community-based interventions for preventing child delinquency. Federal, State, and local authorities should increase funding for empirically based and tested approaches for preventing child delinquency. 2 tables