Citation

Hay C, Stults B, Restivo E. Crim. Justice Behav. 2012; 39(8): 1088-1106.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0093854812442475

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Many programs try to reduce adolescent offending with a risk factor approach in which services target the key causes of crime pertaining to families, peer groups, and schools. These programs often reduce crime, presumably through either prevention (in which exposure to a risk factor is prevented from ever occurring) or reversal (in which an individual possessing a risk factor advances to a state of no longer having it). This study examines an alternative way in which such programs may reduce delinquency: They may achieve the goal of risk factor suppression, whereby a risk factor that is neither prevented nor reversed is rendered inconsequential by program treatment. Thus, the risk factor continues to be present, but by virtue of program treatment, it no longer elevates individual involvement in crime. The authors consider this possibility with evaluation data from the experimental Children at Risk program, a 2-year case management intervention that served high-risk early adolescents. KW: Juvenile justice; Juvenile delinquency;

Language: en