Despite recent encouraging declines in violent juvenile crime, research studies and first-hand experience tell us that more of today’s juvenile offenders are becoming violent than in past generations -- a reason for legitimate public concern and a strong and aggressive response through law enforcement efforts and activities within the juvenile justice system. At the same time, however, it is crucial to continue our efforts to keep at-risk young people from initiating delinquent behavior.
The ingredients that contribute to the problems of juvenile delinquency and violence are all too familiar: children and adolescents with too much idle time, too little positive adult supervision, and too few healthy role models; guns and drugs too readily available in too many of our communities; more than a million cases of child abuse and neglect every year; parents without adequate parenting skills; and children with unmet special education and mental health needs. It is these ingredients, along with their outcomes, that we must attack in our fight against juvenile crime.
The positive news released about reduced levels of violent juvenile crime must not lead to a relaxation of efforts to lower what are still unacceptably high rates of juvenile delinquency and violence. Instead, this partial success should lead the Nation to intensify its commitment to reducing juvenile crime and to sustain the 1995 decline in arrest rates while working to provide those services that will enable children to grow up as healthy and productive citizens in nurturing homes, safe schools, and peaceful, caring communities. To be effective, this commitment must be rooted in a comprehensive approach to the problems of juvenile delinquency, violence, and victimization.
In 1993, OJJDP laid the foundation for an improved, more effective juvenile justice system with the publication of its Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. As set forth in that document, the Comprehensive Strategy uses statistics, research, and program evaluations as the basis for a set of sound principles for establishing a continuum of care for the Nation’s children. The Strategy emphasizes the importance of local planning teams that assess the influences or factors putting youth at risk for delinquency, determine available resources, and put prevention programs in place to either reduce those risk factors or provide protective factors that buffer juveniles from the impact of risk factors. Early intervention is recommended for juveniles whose behavior puts them on one or more pathways to delinquency. The Strategy also proposes a system of graduated sanctions that can ensure immediate and appropriate accountability and treatment for juvenile offenders.
In 1995, to help States, cities, and communities implement the Comprehensive Strategy, OJJDP published its Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. Then, early in 1996, the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, of which OJJDP is a member, published Combating Violence and Delinquency: The National Juvenile Justice Action Plan. The Action Plan prioritizes Federal activities and resources under eight critical objectives that must be addressed to effectively combat delinquency and violence.
The OJJDP FY 1997 Final Program Plan is rooted in the principles of the Comprehensive Strategy and furthers the objectives of the Action Plan. The Final Program Plan supports a balanced approach to aggressively addressing juvenile delinquency and violence through establishing graduated sanctions, improving the juvenile justice system’s ability to respond, and preventing the onset of delinquency. It also recognizes the need to ensure public safety and support children’s development into healthy, productive citizens through a range of prevention, early intervention, and graduated sanctions programs.
This Application Kit contains solicitations for proposals for competitive programs in areas identified through a process involving OJJDP staff, other Federal agency representatives, and juvenile justice practitioners. Areas chosen for new competitive programs are school-based gang intervention and prevention, juvenile sex offender typology, cost-benefit analyses, and teen court evaluation. Combined with OJJDP programs being continued in FY 1997, these new demonstration and evaluation programs form a continuum of programming that supports the objectives of the Action Plan and mirrors the foundation and framework of the Comprehensive Strategy.
Programs supported through OJJDP’s discretionary funding for FY 1997 have the potential to move us closer to having in place a continuum of care that will result in safe kids, safe streets, safe communities, and a brighter, safer future for us all.
Shay Bilchik
Administrator
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention