This Bulletin is based on Chapter 10, "The Prevention of Serious and Violent Juvenile Offending," by Gail A. Wasserman and Laurie S. Miller (1998), in Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Successful Interventions, edited by Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications.

Gail A. Wasserman, Ph.D., is Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Child Psychiatry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. Laurie S. Miller, Ph.D., is Director of the Institute for Children at Risk at the New York University Child Study Center at the New York University School of Medicine. Lynn Cothern, Ph.D., is Senior Writer-Editor for the Juvenile Justice Resource Center.

Points of view or opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of OJJDP or the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

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From the Administrator While most youth who enter the juvenile justice system never return, a small number of serious, violent juvenile offenders reoffend repeatedly, accounting for a disproportionate amount of juvenile crime. To enhance our understanding of these troubled and often dangerous youth, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention established its Study Group on Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders. Expanding upon OJJDP's formative work on the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders, the 22 juvenile justice experts who constituted the Study Group analyzed research on the development of serious and violent juvenile offending and effective interventions to prevent its recurrence. This Bulletin describes some of the developmental precursors to such offending and offers effective approaches to its prevention that are family, parent, and child focused. Examples of well-designed intervention programs are also provided. It is my hope that the information contained in this Bulletin will help communities better understand and address serious and violent juvenile offending. John J. Wilson Acting Administrator