Interventions to Prevent SVJ Offending

Because several factors put children at risk of becoming SVJ offenders, it is unlikely that intervention efforts directed only toward a single source of influence (e.g., individual, family, school, or peers) will be successful. Multiple-component programs are needed, and priority should be given to preventive actions that reduce risk factors in multiple domains. Because many of the same risk factors that predict adolescent delinquency and violence also predict substance abuse, school dropout, early sexual involvement, and teen pregnancy, the benefits of such early intervention programs can be wide ranging (see table 3).

The most successful early intervention programs involve simultaneous interventions in the home and in the school. Community interventions -- particularly public health approaches that target risk or protective factors -- are also important. The success of this approach depends on the development of data collection methods that specify when, where, and how offenses occur as well as how offenders develop. Wide-ranging community-based programs are required in which risk and protective factors are measured, intervention techniques targeting these factors are implemented, and the impact of these techniques is assessed.

The public health approach can be effective with SVJ offenders because preventive actions often work best when implemented at the community level. For example, centrally mobilized police officers who use community policing strategies and coordinate their efforts with school nurses and other social service and mental health workers in the community can be effective in involving the community in identifying and targeting SVJ offenders. School-based strategies are also useful, especially those focused on school organization or on classroom-based curriculums emphasizing the reinforcement of prosocial and academic skills. The community can also intervene by reducing the availability of firearms and drugs and encouraging norms and laws favorable to prosocial behaviors. Most of these approaches have been incorporated in OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy.

To be effective, the prevention of SVJ offending must involve:

	Effective screening for children who are exposed to adverse circumstances or who exhibit behaviors that place them at high risk of becoming SVJ offenders.
	Access by families, children, and adolescents to early intervention services, programs, and opportunities that have been determined to be effective in preventing or reducing the likelihood of SVJ offending or in mediating associated risk factors. Effective interventions include home visitation of pregnant teenagers, parent training, preschool intellectual enrichment programs, interpersonal skills training, and medication for neurological disorders or mental illness.
	Preventive interventions based on public health approaches and implemented within a comprehensive, community-based program that targets risk factors in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
	Integration of services, including those provided by the juvenile justice system, mental health system, medical system, schools, and child protection agencies.
	Prevention of gang formation and involvement, drug dealing, drug markets, and violent victimization.

Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders	Juvenile Justice Bulletin   ·  May 1998