|
OJJDP’s
Comprehensive Strategy and the Role
of CPS
In its 1995 Guide for Implementing the
Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent,
and Chronic Juvenile Offenders, OJJDP
emphasizes the need for delinquency prevention,
stressing that it is the “most cost-effective
approach to reducing juvenile
delinquency” (Howell, 1995:7). In fact, prevention
efforts constitute one of the two
primary components of the Comprehensive
Strategy (the other being reform of
the juvenile justice system). The Comprehensive
Strategy uses a risk-focused approach
to prevention efforts—meaning that
it requires careful attention to factors identified
through research as precursors to
delinquency, violence, and other problem
behaviors. As shown in figure 2,
the Comprehensive Strategy divides such
risk factors into four basic domains: community,
family, school, and individual/peer. Central to the focus of this Bulletin
are family risk factors. In defining family
risk factors, the Comprehensive Strategy
specifies that “family management problems”
include failure to supervise and
monitor children and excessively severe,
harsh, or inconsistent punishment; “family
conflict” includes domestic violence; and
“family history of the problem behavior”
includes caregiver substance abuse (Howell,
1995:20). Significantly, these family risk
factors for delinquency and violence are
also characteristics typically present
in abusive or neglectful families. These
identified risk factors, considered in
conjunction with the clear link between
childhood maltreatment and subsequent
delinquency, strongly suggest that child
welfare agencies and their efforts to reduce
child abuse and neglect have a central
role for delinquency prevention within
the context of the Comprehensive Strategy.
Figure 2: Risk Factors for Health and Behavior Problems
Source: Catalano and Hawkins, 1995; updated 1998–2000 by Developmental Research
and Programs, Inc.
|
|
|
|
Preventing Delinquency Through Improved
Child Protection Services |
Juvenile
Justice Bulletin • July 2001 |
|
