The Importance Of Youth Delinquency In The Baltimore City

Jason Tashea, writer for The Baltimore Sun states, “Youth delinquency primarily occurs afterschool and not during curfew hours” (1). This started a fierce debate in Baltimore, as Tashea points out, Baltimore City needs to reopen its closed recreation centers. Last year alone, 20 neighborhood recreation centers closed in the city. Since youth are most likely to commit delinquent acts afterschool when they are most idle, we need to create positive environments for them to be social and active. The Department of Justice agrees that rec centers are the right kind of place for youth to channel their energy in a positive way (1).

This statistic is a good indicator of a bigger problem across America in our at-risk youth population.

Tashea argues, “By investing in recreation centers, we can provide alternatives to delinquency. By providing reception centers, Baltimore could create access to services for our most vulnerable youth” (1). Community centers are safe places for afterschool programs as Wilson and Philip, state, “For many youth, the recreation/drop-in center is a nonthreatening, relatively unstructured place to play sports and hang out in an otherwise high-risk urban area” (73). In Baltimore where the community leaders and stakeholders have brought the at-risk youth problem to the surface, they can start to see some positive outcomes. In positive data about a Baltimore Police Athletic League center Chung, et al., notes, “A study of the Goodnow Police Athletic League (PAL) center in northeast Baltimore, the first center to open in May 1995, also indicated that juvenile arrests dropped nearly 10 percent, the number of armed robberies dropped from 14 to 7, assaults with handguns were eliminated, and common assaults decreased from 32 to 20.3” (16). These statistics further prove that prevention options work effectively, and can greatly improve our American

Witt and Crompton assert, “With juvenile arrests for crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and theft still at unacceptable levels, elected officials in many communities are faced with the political necessity to undertake prevention and and programs funded to address the issues these negative statistics demonstrate?

Intervention programs can happen with a fiscally responsible implementation strategy across the US. In some communities, kids are seeking recreation centers afterschool and before curfew hours with inadequate programming and resources that work with the at-risk youth population. Sprouse, Klitzing, Parr, assert, “Recreation programs have also begun to address the growing concerns of youth at risk” (1). Do the recreation programs cause problem for law enforcement? If so, do the problems lie with the at-risk youth population as a punitive behavioral modification