Developmental Crime Prevention and Juvenile Delinquency

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Background
One of the best strategies for combating juvenile delinquency is adopting developmental crime prevention program. Developmental crime prevention programs aim to lower an individual’s potential of becoming criminal. The theory that guides these types of programs is that criminal and deviant activity is the result of early life experiences and learning. These programs put an emphasis on what causes individuals to commit deviant acts in order to identify ways that this activity can be stopped (Lab, 2014). A key piece to developmental crime prevention programs is identifying risk and protective factors for offending.
A risk factor is any variable increases the probability of later offending, while a protective factor is any variable that interacts with a risk factor to minimize its effects. The two categories of risk factors that tend to get the bulk of attention in developmental crime prevention programs are individual and family-level risk factors. Examples of these types of risk factors are low intelligence and attainment and poor parental supervision, respectively (Lab, 2014). Once these factors have been identified, programs are designed to counteract the risk factors, and enhance the protective factors.
An interesting feature that is unique to developmental prevention is that reducing criminality tends to be an indirect consequence of most programs. Many programs are initially implemented to improve early childhood outcomes by increasing cognitive skills, academic achievement, building strong bonds with the family and school, and more. This is done well before delinquency or offending can even be measured.
One type of program that would fall under developmental crime prevention is a preschool enrichment pr...

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