Assignment: Centervale's Delinquency Prevention Program

Here's What Happened . . .

Recently juvenile delinquency has become a hot topic in the city of Centervale. Compared to last year, official data indicates an increase in status offenses, especially truancy and curfew. Additionally, the Centervale police department reports a consistent three-year increase in minor arrests for larceny, vandalism, assault, and unlawful entry. It appears that incidents involving female juveniles are rapidly increasing while there is a steady increase in male juvenile related incidents.

Anecdotally, the general sentiment of Centervale citizens is that children are out of control. The local newspaper regularly receives letters to the editor complaining about juveniles loitering, spraying graffiti, and causing general mischief. Although the city has run a juvenile court, a diversion program, community corrections, and probation for some time, it has never undertaken a program that specifically targets juvenile delinquency prevention.

Feeling pressure from local civic organizations and sensing the frustration of the population in general, the mayor has asked you to devise a realistic and economic program to address Centervale's juvenile delinquency problem.

Here's What You Need to Do . . .

Create a Community Initiative Program that will attempt to reduce and prevent juvenile delinquency in Centervale. Using APA in-text citations to cite external sources that link to corresponding references on a separate page, compose your 5-7 page proposal based on the following questions:

• The Mayor has indicated that reducing and preventing truancy, larceny or theft, and underage drinking are the city's top priorities.
• Choose one of these target issues as your program's focus.
• Select a target population-individual, family, community, or society-and discuss your analysis for determining why this issue is a problem, then create an outline with a minimum of three specific goals for your program.
• Building upon a foundation of current trends in juvenile justice and research on juvenile delinquency, discuss how the goals of your program are consistent with current trends and your research findings. Compare similar successful programs and suggest ways to improve on an area of limitation.
• Summarize a theory of juvenile delinquency and discuss how it specifically addresses your selected target issue. Critically evaluate the theory and provide examples of how the theory demonstrates the concepts proposed in your program.
• Describe the implementation of the program and any anticipated limitations.
• Briefly describe how the program will be evaluated. Use external sources as your guide, explain how the program's success will be measured, and describe new actions that will demonstrate program success to the mayor and citizens of Centervale.