I think the best chance we have of changing the chance of a kid becoming juvenile delinquent is the parents/family section. In fact, their are already tons of programs out there that target this specific area. There are parenting classes that a parent can attend to learn new ways of parenting that may be better. Programs such as AWARE and Youth Dynamics monitor a child's home life, school life, social life, etc. and work on improving that child's goals to help them avoid this juvenile delinquent phase. In extreme cases child services would step in and remove a child from a home that is being abusive.
The least one to worry about is environmental factors. I do not believe it is possible to go around changing the SES of every child that needs help. This would require us to basically just hand out a ton of money, cars, houses, etc. to children in need. Although their are programs that try to help families in need, they are helping with essential needs: food, water, shelter, etc. A child with a poor SES can still easily avoid juvenile delinquency as long as he has the proper parenting and learns proper peer behavior.
I agree with a lot of what you said. That is good that there are these programs out there that target this specific area already. Hopefully it helps.
ReplyDeleteCody, I agree with the parenting classes, that was a suggestion that I too made to correct that area. Worrying about environmental factors would be such a waste of time, unfortunately that is something that if tried change, would possibly just end up much worse in the end.
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