NCJ Number
152142
Date Published
August 1993
Length
2 pages
Annotation
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has developed a comprehensive strategy for dealing with serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders; the program can be implemented at the State, county, or local levels.
Abstract
The program was developed in response to the sharp increases in serious and violent juvenile crime and the youth gang problem. The OJJDP program rests on several crucial principles: strengthening families, supporting core social institutions, and promoting prevention strategies that reduce the impact of risk factors and enhance the influence of protective factors in youths at high risk of juvenile delinquency. Other principles include immediately intervening when delinquent behavior first appears; establishing a broad spectrum of graduated sanctions; and identifying and controlling the small number of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. Community planning teams are important to this effort. The program includes a variety of protective buffer programs to counter major risk factors, the use of a broad range of residential and nonresidential sanctions, immediate interventions, intermediate sanctions, and secure corrections for the most serious offenders. OJJDP expects to award grants to several jurisdictions to carry out the assessment, planning, and implementation process for the program models currently being identified by a grantee. 13 references