Delinquency prevention programs

Delinquency prevention programs

Delinquency prevention refers to the activities that promote a modesty life and good morals in the society hence lowering the chances of a juvenile committing a delinquent act. Some of the delinquent acts may include, property crimes, drug abuse and a crime against a person. A delinquent child is generally a child between the age of 7 and 17 that have refused to obey the law (Finck, 1964). With that age, there is a need for an alternative justice system for the child separate from that of adults (Moodie & Fisher, 2009). The reason for this is that there is no mental and emotional maturity among children in the age group. A delinquent child will always experiment challenges in life, which makes it essential to have a delinquent prevention program.

One of the most successful delinquent prevention programs is the Big Brother Sister (BBBS) Community- Based Mentoring (CBM) program. BBBS is a program that offers a direct mentorship opportunity to youths and young children under the risk of finding themselves in delinquent acts (Moodie & Fisher, 2009). The program is useful in reducing peer influence and the pressure for indulging in drug abuse and antisocial behaviour affecting youths, mostly in a school. The main objective of the program is to develop measures that support healthy growth addressing all the necessary needs that foster positive behaviour. The program is based on the social control theory where a youth(mentee) is attached to and adult(mentor) who provide supportive mentorship into socially acceptable behaviour. There must be a mutually trusting relationship between the two parties (Herrera, Grossman, Kauh & McMaken, 2011).

The strength of the program lies in the pairing between the adult and the youth. Perfect pairing leads to an excellent mutual relationship, which is supportive, loving and caring. If the matching goes wrong, then the whole thing becomes a mess. The parent, the BBBS case manager and the child must work together and agree on the mentorship goal mutually. One of the main goals is the mentee and the mentor coming together freely. The BBBS program is mainly tailored and has conformed success in substance abuse control and avoidance cases, educational performance improvement cases, antisocial behaviour amending and amending of family relationships. The cost of the BBBS community-based mentorship program is estimated to be $1,000 per mentor match (Moodie & Fisher, 2009).

On the other hand, there are delinquency prevention programs that have failed. One of them is the All-Star program. The All-Stars program is a tailored character-based program that is meant to foster transformational change among youths aged between 11 and 15 years and prevent them from indulging in risky behaviours like substance abuse, early sexual activity and violence. After evaluation, the program was found to be having a non-significant impact on the control of the experimental group against the mapped poor characteristics. It was a research-based program studying factors influencing lousy behaviour and then proposed ways that would reinforce positive behaviour to replace the negative ones were induced(Harrington, Giles, Hoyle, Feeney & Yungbluth, 2001). The main qualities as a means of achieving positivity and good behaviour were five. They included establishing some positive norms to guide the youths, developing commitments at a personal level, fostering parental attentiveness, developing achievable personal ambition and future aspirations and promoting cohesion between the youth with the school and the community. The All-star theory is tailored from a social learning theory where the belief is that individuals are shaped the behaviour they observe from their peers, trainers, family member and the community at large. Therefore, the set up is customized to ensure that all the positive behaviour is readily available; hence the youths can learn from.

An experimental all-star program done in 2001 by Harrington and his colleagues reveal that the was an increase in bad behaviour among the subjected under study. On substance abuse measured in 30 days, it reveled that there was a steady increase with no satisfactory effect on the change in attitude in the groups. The group also became more violent and reported an increase in sexual activities after the assessment (Hansen & Dusenbury, 2004).

The above discussed the All-star program and the Big Brother Sister (BBBS) Community- Based Mentoring (CBM) program have similarities in that both where behaviour modification programs that are based on the social control theory. In both cases, there is a session with the instructors or mentor responsible for leading and guiding the mentee on a positive lifestyle value. Most importantly, they were both meant to ride on the benefits of maintaining relationships and commitments. Despite all this, the All start programs a total failure while the Big Brother Sister (BBBS) Community- Based Mentoring (CBM) is a big success. The difference lies in the overall set up of the program.

The All-star program is based on a classroom set up where the instructor is expected to guide the class through small group goal and objectives, one on one guidance and sometimes outside the classroom sessions. It is like a one to many mentorship programs (Harrington, Giles, Hoyle, Feeney & Yungbluth, 2001). On the other hand, the BBBS program is customized one to one mentorship program where the mentee is attached to the mentor where both are supposing to be together in 3 to 5 hours a week for one year. In this case, the dual is expected to engage in daily life activities such as going shopping, attending sports activities, attending hikes and movies, among others. This is the main reason as to why one program is a success, and the other one is not. In a one to one relationship, total concentration on the subject is achieved. There is much flexibility, depending on the demands of the program. In a one to many relationships, attention is divided; hence noticing a variation in change becomes difficult (Krohn, 2009). Another difference is in age. The All-star program accommodates intakes from the age of 11 and above, while the BBBS program starts at an early age of around six years. The age difference is a significant contributor to the succeeds of the program because it is believed that at that tender age, the mentee in not exposed hence there is a more significant chance that with guidance it may never happen unlike in the other case where curing has to be done (Krohn, 2009).