Innovative treatment strategies and approaches

Interventions for Delinquent Youth

Are Individual Factors or Family Factors More Important When Creating Interventions for Delinquent Youth?

There are a variety of factors that contribute to delinquency in youths. These factors must first be considered before determining which is more important when creating interventions for delinquent youth -- individual factors or family factors. Individual factors are those characteristics or behaviors that affect an individual's risk of, or resistance to, delinquent behavior. In contrast, family factors typically involve the family's support, culture, structure, and functioning as they affect the behavior of the individual family members ("Risk and protective," 2007). In his study on the factors leading to delinquency for youth, Ek (2008) surmised that the primary individual risk and protective factors associated with delinquency, or prevention thereof, were: coping skills, self-esteem, attitudes toward drug use, attitudes towards antisocial behavior, and commitment to education. Family factors of risk or protection included: parental supervision, parental discipline, parental conflict, and intergenerational or extended-family influences.

Considering the impact of the above listed personal and familial risk factors for delinquency, I would say both are equally important when developing interventions for delinquent youths. Ek's (2008) study demonstrated clusters of respondents who had were lacking in one area, but not the other, and still the result was a higher level of delinquency than the cluster who had protective factors in place in both familial and individual categories. It follows that simply addressing one side of the delinquency equation would not provide the positive result needed to develop an effective delinquency intervention.

The type of intervention I feel is most effective is a multi-pronged approach that not only seeks to address individual and familial factors, but also community, peer, and educational factors as well (Christie & Yell, 2008). An effective delinquency intervention must address the youth's self-esteem needs as well as improving their coping skills. The youth's attitudes towards drugs and antisocial behavior must be altered, as well as their commitment to schooling. With this increased commitment to education must come an educational factor to the intervention program to help facilitate learning for the affected youths. The parents and extended family must be involved, for the intervention to be successful. This includes, but is not limited to, improving parenting skills involving supervision and discipline. Community factors, including: the physical environment, recreational and economic opportunities, and social supports, must be in place to ensure the success of the residents ("Risk and protective," 2007). Additionally, as Leve and Chamberlain (2005) noted "association with delinquent peers is a recognized pre-cursor to continued delinquency" and as such must be a part of an effective delinquency intervention.

Regretfully, there is no singular intervention program that can be applied to delinquent youths. Each program must address the unique needs of the youth in question. In instances where protective community factors are present, then the intervention would not need to be designed with a remedy for this component. An effective intervention for delinquent youth will support the already protective factors in place, while working to counter any risk factors in areas that affect the tendency for delinquency.

What Interventions Would be Emphasized in a Balanced Approach to Sanctioning, Rehabilitative Intervention and Public Safety?

The balanced approach to sanctioning, rehabilitative intervention, and public safety, according to Roberts (2004), goes beyond the traditional individual treatment agenda. Instead, this approach is replaced by a broader emphasis on the goal of competency development, which requires that offenders 'exit the system more capable of being productive and responsible in the community'. Competency development in the balanced approach emphasizes the need for a broader concern with maturational development, especially by means of acquiring the survival skills required for daily living (p. 485).

Interventions that emphasized the balanced approach do look at the deficits and dysfunctions of the individual, but also identify family and community strengths, to draw upon. Not only would this intervention increase competency in the delinquent youth, but also help ensure public safety. Mentoring with a parental education and community organization approach, coupled with an effective sanctioning guidelines with meaningful consequences, is one intervention that would fulfill this criteria.

This type of intervention differs significantly from the interventions commonly utilized in the current system. Most interventions are geared to address a singular facet of delinquency, and regretfully ignore the others. As an example, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America offer a wide variety of programs to help counter risk factors for youth delinquency. Their programs such as: Goals for Graduation, Project Learn, and Strategic Approaches for Academic Success all look to the educational component of risk factors for delinquency ("Education," 2009). Programs such as reading remediation, as supported by Christine and Yell (2008), are types of programs that are typically either preventative in nature, or rehabilitative, yet they're not well-rounded enough to address all of the issues that make up the challenge of youth delinquency.