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Child/Youth Crime Prevention - Demonstrated and Model Programs
This list is not all-inclusive. For information about additional demonstrated and model programs, visit the U.S. Department of Education, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Center for Disease Control. There may be a cost for some of the curricula of some of the following programs.
Primary Prevention (Universal Programs)
Life Skills Training
Life Skills Training (LST) is a skills-oriented program designed to prevent or reduce gateway drug use. The program targets students in middle or junior high school with initial implementation in grades 6 and 7 and booster sessions for the next 2 years. The curriculum has three major components: self-management skills, social skills and information and skills related specifically to drug use. Teachers use a variety of techniques, including instruction, demonstration, feedback, reinforcement, and practice, to train students in these three core areas. LST was designated a model program by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Developmental Research and Programs, Inc., and the Office of Justice.
Key Contact: Gilbert Botvin, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Institute for Prevention Research
Cornell University Medical College
411 East 69th Street
KB-201
New York, NY 10021
(212) 746-1270
Seattle Social Development Project
The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) is an example of a program that includes classroom behavior management among its core components. The goal of this model program is to enhance elementary school students’ bonds with school and their families while decreasing a number of early risk factors for violence. The initiative includes both environmental and individual change approaches; in addition to classroom behavior management, the components include child skills training and parent training. SSDP has been designated a model program by the American Youth Policy Forum, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Developmental Research and Programs, Inc., and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
Key Contact: J. David Hawkins, Ph.D.
Social Development Research Group
University of Washington
School of Social Work
130 Nickerson, Suite 107
Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 286-1805
Secondary Prevention Programs
The Perry Preschool Program
The Perry Preschool Program provides early education to children age 3 and 4 from families with low socioeconomic status. The preschool lasts 2 years and is designed to offer high-quality early childhood education and promote young children’s intellectual, social and physical development. In addition, this intervention provides weekly home visits by teachers and referrals for social services, when needed. It has demonstrated long-term effects (up to age 19) on delinquency, academic achievement and other school-related outcomes, as well as significant reductions in antisocial behavior, serious fights, police contacts and school dropout rates. Perry Preschool has been designated a model program by the American Youth Policy forum and the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.
Key Contact: High Scope Educational Research Foundation
600 North River Street
Ypsilanti, MI 48198-0704
(734) 485-2000
http://www.highscope.org
Healthy Start (Healthy Families America)
Healthy Start is a voluntary, non-medical home visiting program that seeks to insure healthy, thriving children and strong, nurturing families by offering both short and long term support and assistance to families with newborn children. Healthy Start service begins during pregnancy or at the time of birth. Through a comprehensive assessment process, families are screened for characteristics that potentially place them at risk for poor child and family outcomes. Families with few, if any risk characteristics are offered short-term services that may include a welcome-home visit, parenting newsletters about child development, and information about community resources and supports.
Longer-term family support services extending through early childhood (up to age five) are offered to families whose multiple characteristics place them at higher risk for poor child and family outcomes. These services include child development information and screening, parent education and support, and linking families to community resources including health care, food, and housing. Healthy Start is based on 12 critical elements. In Oregon, we have added an additional 3 critical components. Healthy Start is currently
operating in 40 states nationwide. Each Healthy Start site is provided with the flexibility to tailor the program to the unique needs and characteristics of their community.
Key Contact: Christi Peeples
Healthy Start Coordinator
Oregon Commission on Children and Families
530 Center Street NE, suite 405
Salem, OR 97310
(503) 378-6768
First Step
The First Step to Success program targets at-risk kindergartners who show the early signs of an antisocial pattern of behavior (e.g., aggression, oppositional-defiant behavior, severe tantruming, victimization of others). First Step to Success consists of three interconnected modules: (a) proactive, universal screening of all kindergartners; (b) school intervention involving the teacher, peers, and the target child; and (c) parent/caregiver training and involvement to support the child’s school adjustment. The major goal of the program is to divert at-risk kindergartners from an antisocial path in their subsequent school careers.
Key Contacts: Hill M. Walker and Jeffrey R. Sprague, Co-Directors
Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior
1265 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1265
Phone: (541) 346-3592
Fax: (541) 346-2594
Tertiary Prevention Programs
Multisystemic Therapy
Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is an intensive family- and community-based treatment that addresses multiple determinants of antisocial behavior. This approach is implemented within a network of interconnected systems that includes one or more of the following contexts: individual, family, peer, school and neighborhood. MST targets families with children in the juvenile justice system who are violent, substance-abusing, or chronic offenders and at high risk of out-of-home placement. Four types of services are delivered through a home-based model: strategic family therapy, structural family therapy, behavioral parent training and cognitive-behavioral therapy. While the intensity of services ultimately depends on individual youth and family needs, the average MST family receives 60 hours of direct services delivered over a period of 4 months. Program outcomes in serious delinquents include reductions in long-term rates of rearrest, reductions in out-of-home placements, improvements in family functioning, and reductions in mental health problems. MST has been designated a model program by the American Youth Policy Forum, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.
Key Contact: Scott W. Henggeler, Ph.D.
Director, Family Services Research Center
Medical University of South Carolina
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
171 Ashley Avenue
Annex III
Charleston, SC 29425-0742
(843) 876-1800
Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care
Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care is a multisystemic clinical intervention that targets teenagers with histories of chronic and severe criminal behavior as an alternative to incarceration, group or residential treatment or hospitalization. Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care implementers recruit, train, and supervise foster families to offer youths treatment and intensive supervision at home, in school, and in the community. The program also provides parent training and other services to the biological families of treated youths, helping to improve family relationships and reduce delinquency when youths return to their homes. Youths who participate in this program also receive behavior management and skill-focused therapy and a community liaison who coordinates contacts among case managers and others involved with the youths. MTFC is a Blueprint model program.
Key Contact: Patricia Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Clinic Director
Oregon Social Learning Center
207 East 5th Street
Suite 202
Eugene, OR 97401
(541) 485-2711
For information about additional prevention programs, see “Blueprints for Violence Prevention”. This Web site also offers an “Interactive Program Selection” search, and contains several databases which provide bibliographic information for research, resources, programs, and survey instruments.
Additional resources may be found from the Oregon Juvenile Crime Prevention Program, 635 Capitol Street NE, Suite 350, Salem, OR 97730; phone: (503) 986-4567.
The Oregon Commission on Children and Families, the Oregon Youth Authority and the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission published a “Cultural Competency and Gender Specific Services Resource Guide” in April 2001 which, in addition to providing information about prevention programs, identifies national, state and local organizations that have promising programs or practice models for working with diverse populations. It is available through the State Commission on Children and Families, at (503) 373-7384.
Safe Schools: Violence Prevention Programs
Second Step: Violence Prevention Program
Second Step is a school-based social skills curriculum for preschool through junior high that teaches children to change the attitudes and behaviors that contribute to violence. The curriculum teaches social skills to reduce impulsive and aggressive behavior in children and increase their level of social competence. Second Step teaches the same three skill units at each grade level (preschool through grade 9): Empathy, Impulse Control, and Anger Management. The content of the lessons varies according to the grade level, and the skills targeted for practice are designed to be developmentally appropriate. At all grade levels, Second Step provides opportunities for modeling, practice, and reinforcement of new skills. Second Step was designated an exemplary program in 2001 by the Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free School Expert Panel.
Key Contact: Committee for Children
Client Support Services Department
2203 Airport Way south, suite 500
Seattle, WA 98134
Phone: (206) 343-1223 (800) 634-4449
Fax: (206) 343-1445
E-mail: info(at)cfchildren.org
www.cfchildren.org
Bullying Prevention Program
The Bullying Prevention Program posits that bullying behavior can be checked and redirected into a more pro-social direction through a systematic restructuring of the social environment. Among other outcomes, this restructuring is expected to result in fewer opportunities for bullying behavior and fewer or smaller rewards (e.g., in the form of prestige or peer support for displaying such behavior. The program aims to effect systematic changes of the “opportunity” and “reward” structures for bullying and similar behavior in the school and other relevant contexts. In addition, positive, friendly, and pro-social behaviors are encouraged and rewarded. A basic premise of the Bullying Prevention Program is that most efforts to create a better school environment must be initiated and driven by the adults at school. However, a number of the program measures include the children in these efforts. The program includes interventions at the school, class and individual levels. The basic message is: Bullying is not accepted in our class/school, and we will see to it that it comes to an end. The bullying Prevention Program is a Blueprints model program.
Key Contact: Susan P. Limber, Ph.D.
Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life
Clemson University
158 Agricultural Center
Clemson, SC 29634-5205
Phone: 9864) 656-6271
Fax: (864) 656-6281
E-mail: slimber(at)clemson.edu
Resolving Conflict Creatively Program
The Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) is an initiative of Educators for Social Responsibility. The primary goal of RCCP is to ensure that young people develop the social and emotional skills needed to reduce violence and prejudice, form caring relationships, and build healthy lives. RCCP works to change school cultures so that these skills are both modeled and taught as part of the “basics” in education. RCCP involves five components:
- Professional development for teachers and staff
- Regular classroom instruction based on a K-12 curriculum
- Peer mediation
- Administrator training, and
- Parent training
The high school model, Partners in Learning, also includes Planning and Needs Assessment and Student Leadership Training and Youth Development components.
Key Contact: Jennifer Selfridge
RCCP Program Director
23 Garden Street
Cambridge, MS 02131
Phone: (617) 492-1764 ext. 31
Fax: (617) 864-5164
Email: jselfridge(at)esrnational.org
Child/Youth Crime Prevention
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