Free essay on effectiveness of delinquency prevention programs

In order to counter the increase in delinquent behavior in young people, several delinquent programs have been rolled out. All of them are geared towards making child delinquents reform and become responsible members of the society. But this has not been an easy thing to do because there are several factors that affect the effectiveness of these delinquency prevention programs. Most of them are attributed to the society, the child delinquents themselves and the improper running of the programs.
All the delinquency prevention programs are always geared towards identifying factors contributing to delinquency and address them. But the lack of a holistic participation of the society proves to be the single most factors that affect the effectiveness of delinquency prevention programs (Siegel & Welsh 2011). Once a child has developed deviance behavior, the behavior does not automatically stop after attending delinquency prevention programs. Those youths who have already gone through these programs always find themselves falling back to unacceptable behavior and delinquency because the follow-up process after they have finished programs is not comprehensive.
The best thing to do in order to develop effective delinquency programs is to have to consider a program that gives more attention the time before the onset of delinquent behavior and long after the program is finished and the delinquent is done with the program (Springer & Roberts 2011). Such a program will ensure that delinquent behavior does not develop in the first place, and if it does, the child will go through the program and follow up process be put in place that will ensure that the child delinquent is kept in check.
It is enough to get involved in the lives of children from very early on in life so as to reduce the chances of them getting involved in criminal activities. In case they are involved in crime, they can then be taken through the delinquent prevention program. Arrangements should be made to follow the child in order to see whether they drift back and if they do, they are given more help.

References

Siegel, L. & Welsh, B. (2011). Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law. Belmont: Cengage Learning
Springer, D. & Roberts, A. (2011). Juvenile Justice and Delinquency. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett