Youth Crime Prevention
Crime prevention is a broad category, encompassing almost all activity undertaken in criminology and criminal justice. Efforts to prevent crime can diverge greatly on the causes of crime and the actions necessary to deter it. Whether preventing a first crime by increasing a youngster's cognitive skills so he can better negotiate conflict, or stemming a criminal career through incarceration, the action is valuable because it prevents crime. The argument made by the author is that it is not valuable to include under the category "prevention" any and all activity oriented to understanding and affecting crime. Rather, we apply a public health view of prevention that distinguishes it from treatment of harm minimizing interventions. In essence, prevention works to block the formation of a pattern of delinquent activity among at- risk youth or in high crime locations. Therefore, after a description of prevention principles as they are applied to crime, we focus on promising approaches to preventing youth crime. The public health view of prevention states that for a disease to occur, the coincidence of three components-a pathogen, a susceptible host, and an environment that could s
Although there has been much effort in the past twenty years, and the sophistication and diversity of the populations studied have increased greatly in the last decade, much of the research is still generated from a relatively small set of studies that may have limitations. Fundamentally the field needs continued and expanded evaluation of intervention efforts. Especially in the need of good evaluations are community and situational preventing strategies. In addition to fundamental advancements, the field could benefit from further innovations in existing research. Determining the cause and related interventions also differ in prevention. The first step in understanding cause is to determine variations in the prevalence of the problem and location. Once established, one can compare the variations in prevalence with the risk factors and settings. The goal is to identify the necessary risk factors for the problem to occur. There are several extended reviews of crime prevention efforts for youth have been undertaken in trying to determine which developmental prevention approach works. There is limited empirical understanding of what works in preventing delinquency. Of the three strategies, the developmental approach is better documented with empirical risk studies and trials using st
Some common words found in the essay are:
Tolan Crime, crime prevention, risk factors, youth crime, public health, at-risk youth, public health view, alter environmental conditions, health view prevention, seek alter environmental, criminal activity, variations prevalence, community environmental, approach limited, removing components,
Approximate Word count = 879
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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