Policies Preventing Juvenile Crime

Substance abuse treatment is one of the most effective juvenile justice policies.

Effective policies to reduce juvenile delinquency yield benefits that far outweigh the costs of the programs. Juvenile crime increases the likelihood of drug abuse, dropping out of school and adult criminal behavior. Preventing juvenile crime means fewer adult criminals and other social problems, reducing the social and economic burdens that result. Unfortunately, the most effective policies to prevent juvenile crime suffer from low levels of youth participation.

Identification

The Future of Children, a joint effort between the Brookings Institution and Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs, in 2008 reviewed the research on juvenile justice programs and identified some of the best practices and policies in the field. The most successful policies and programs, Future of Children found, are those that prevent young people from committing crimes and steer first-time offenders away from future juvenile delinquency.

Types

Effective programs and policies, according to analysts at Future of Children, include prevention programs that target all youth and strive to prevent substance abuse, bullying and teen pregnancy. Other prevention programs target at-risk youth, such as adolescents at risk of committing violent or nonviolent crimes. The researchers also found community-based interventions, especially those that emphasize family interactions, to be effective programs.

Significance

A study by the Urban Institute surveyed more than 500 juvenile justice professionals, asking them what they considered the most effective juvenile justice policies. The survey showed the most highly ranked policies were substance abuse treatment, treatment for sex offenders and mental health treatment. The policies with the lowest rankings included such politically popular measures as prosecuting juveniles in criminal courts, establishing juvenile curfews and prosecuting parents for the delinquent acts of their children.

Benefits

Evidence-based policies to prevent juvenile crime can save taxpayers between $7 and $10 for every $1 spent on these prevention efforts, according to the briefing by Future of Children on best practices. Most of the savings involve reduced expenditures on prisons.

Warning

Researchers at the Future of Children cautioned that many politically popular programs and policies intended to reduce juvenile crime are not effective. They cited the popular Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, "boot camps" for juvenile offenders and policies that prosecute juveniles as adults as examples of ineffective efforts. Effective policies, they cautioned, often conflict with "tough on crime" sentiments among the public and many elected leaders.

References

• Future of Children: Best Practices in Juvenile Justice Reform
• Most Effective Juvenile Justice Policy? Practitioners Say It's Drug Treatment

Resources

• Justice Policy Institute: Why Good Juvenile Justice Policies Make Good Fiscal Sense
• Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice