Essay Questions

1) The state of CT has chosen to create a new pilot program that diverts troubled adolescents from juvenile courts into community based juvenile diversion differs from deterrence programs. These new community diversion programs are primarily designed to reduce the expected negative impacts of labeling; opponents of the program are concerned that the diversion program will reduce the deterrent impact of the court system. Describe how you would design a study to determine the effectiveness of this new program. Include the specification of outcomes, the best type of research design, measurement issues associated with independent and dependent variables and the statistical test you would expect to employ.

2) Routine Activity theory is an important type of rational choice theory of crime. Describe the rational choice model of crime and describe how routine activity theory differs from deterrence and incapacitation based models of crime control. Assume that your police department has developed a crime prevention program for predatory crime based on routine activity theory and is going to target juvenile offending, outline the steps that would need to be taken to implement the program and evaluate the effectiveness of the program.