Juvenile crime prevention - Assignment Example

Juvenile crime prevention There are different programs which aim at juvenile crime prevention. The full catalog of all crime prevention programs which are active in the USA is available at the website of the National Institute of Justice. Aggression Replacement Training® (ART®) and LifeSkills® Training re tow prevention programs which are proved to be effective after many successful years of their active use. This paper will examine these two programs in detail providing information about their strategies and achievements.

Aggression Replacement Training® (ART®) is a prevention program for youth (11-17 years old). This program consists of set of interventions to help young people to develop social and personal skills to cope with their aggression. This program lasts for 10 week and consists 3 group meeting every week. Each groups consists of 8-12 participants to support appropriate peer communication (Crime Solutions, 2014). Comprehensive curriculum includes anger control, behavior control and moral reasoning trainings.

Specially trained counselors work with youth in order to prevent recidivism.ART® has positive result in all three sphere it addresses. First of all, recidivism rate decreases after the program. As far as the program is designed to meet the need of young people with serious episodes of aggressive and antisocial behavior, it is a great achievement. Parents report positive changes in social skills after the participation in the program (Crime Solutions, 2014). Program has a good effect of the occurrence of problem behavior in participants compared to other programs.

Overall, this program is recommended due to its effectiveness. The implementation of this program requires estimated $750 (in Washington state) including training for group facilitators, trainers and master trainers (Crime Solutions, 2014). In can be implemented in urban or suburban territories on the basis of local community centers. LifeSkills® Training is a classroom-based prevention program which is aimed at reducing the consumption of tobacco, alcohol and drugs by young people aged 11-18 (Crime Solutions, 2014).

The program is appropriate for both genders. The content of the program meets the demands of white population only. The content of the program has several important aims. It promotes healthy lifestyle, teaches student social and personal skills which can be helpful and provides a good background for social resistance to unhealthy behavior. The program has 5 components which include self-improvement, coping with anxiety, decision-making, social skills training and cognitive components. Stress on these 5 components influences young people complexly.

After the program cigarette, alcohol and drug use among students drops. They become aware about the consequences of their actions and can resist peer-pressure which is common in any community (Crime Solutions, 2014). The National Health Promotion Associates provides appropriate training for all people who want to participate in this program in their community. Positive outcomes of the program make it very popular in different educational establishments for youth. These two programs are different in their content, target audience and strategies.

While ART® is designed to work with young people who have already committed some crimes with the purpose to prevent recidivism, LifeSkills® enrolls all students who might smoke, drink alcohol or take drugs. ART® helps young people to develop personal and social skills to cope with their aggression and provides group therapy to all participants. LifeSkills® increases awareness among youth and teaches them t make right choices in their lives. Both programs are proved to be effective in juvenile justice for crime and delinquency prevention.

ReferencesCrime Solutions. (2014). LifeSkills® training. National Institute of Justice. Retrieved from http://www.crimesolutions.gov/ProgramDetails.aspx?ID=186Crime Solutions. (2014). Aggression Replacement Training® (ART®). National Institute of Justice. Retrieved from http://www.crimesolutions.gov/ProgramDetails.aspx?ID=254