1. A National Strategy for Juvenile Delinquency Prevention

When the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) was enacted in 1974, it marked the beginning of an evolution from efforts in the 1960s to create a juvenile justice system that more closely resembled the adult criminal system, to one that embraced a more comprehensive approach to juvenile crime and delinquency, including community-based programs, diversion, and deinstitutionalization.

During the 1980s, however, public fear and misperception about the nature and causes of increasing juvenile crime rates helped drive another evolution, this time moving the field back towards punishment and control (OJJDP, 1999). As responses to juvenile crime began to echo the public mind-set, many States passed more punitive and severe laws governing how juvenile offenders are treated in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Across the country, statutes were rewritten to allow for certain classes of juvenile offenders to be handled in criminal court as if they were adults. In some States prosecutors were given the discretion to make decisions about court jurisdiction; in other States, judicial waiver to criminal court became mandatory for certain juvenile offenses.

Between 1988 and 1997, States continued to crack down on juvenile crime and delinquency and, by 1997, forty-seven States had enacted statutory changes in one or more of three areas: juvenile waivers or transfers to criminal court, sentencing options, and juvenile records confidentiality (Synder, 1998). Today, thirty-one States require juveniles who have been tried (or convicted) in the criminal court to be prosecuted in criminal court for any subsequent offense.

During the 1990s, however, our growth in understanding the complex nature of juvenile crime and the relationship of important social, psychological, and familial conditions grew exponentially. In addition, the results of years of youth violence and juvenile crime research recommended a more balanced, integrative approach to combating youth violence and crime. As a result, comprehensive, community-based initiatives began to emerge as a key national strategy for addressing persistent, complex social problems like delinquency, substance abuse and teen pregnancy (Connell, Kubish, Schorr & Weiss, 1995). The 1990s marked another evolution in the history of the juvenile justice system at the Federal, State and local levels, as policymakers began to embrace this balanced approach, and incorporate sanctions, offender accountability, and treatment and prevention components into a continuum of services for children and youth.

So what is the result of this ever-evolving approach to juvenile crime and delinquency? Where do we stand today? We are beginning to see significant downturns in previously frightening juvenile arrest statistics that are cause for optimism. In 1999, juvenile arrest statistics are at their lowest levels since 1987, with decreased arrests for almost every category of juvenile crime including murder, forcible rape, burglary, motor vehicle theft, and arson (Synder, 1999). Juvenile crime is also down in comparison to adult crime. In fact, between 1994 and 1998, juvenile arrests for violent crimes fell 19 percent, while adult violent crime arrests declined only 6 percent in this same period (Snyder, 1999). According to Acting OJJDP Administrator John J. Wilson, "I believe we have achieved these results because States and local communities are now taking a comprehensive and strategic approach to preventing and controlling juvenile violence and victimization."

OJJDP's own comprehensive, programmatic approach to preventing and combating juvenile crime and delinquency comprises many facets, ranging from early childhood and family intervention and prevention to accountability-based strategies for juvenile offenders. It is this continuum of services and sanctions that comprehensively addresses delinquency by preventing its future occurrence while seeking to aggressively intervene with those juveniles who are entering pathways to delinquency and controlling those whose behavior marks them as serious, violent, or chronic juvenile offenders.

A key strategy in OJJDP's comprehensive approach to juvenile crime reduction has been the Title V Community Prevention Grants Program.¹ This program provides communities with the resources needed to identify and respond to root causes of local juvenile delinquency problems through comprehensive, collaborative prevention planning. The program offers training and technical assistance to help communities successfully negotiate the local assessment and planning processes and then provides seed funding for implementation of community three-year prevention plans. It is through this process that communities are empowered to initiate delinquency prevention programs geared to their unique needs and circumstances. Across the country communities have been implementing this prevention strategy for 6 years and are now beginning to fully integrate the key principles of the Community Prevention Grants Program into comprehensive community planning, with positive results.

This chapter begins with a summary of OJJDP's balanced approach to juvenile justice and delinquency prevention. The second section provides an overview of delinquency prevention based on risk and protective factors. The final section provides an overview of the Community Prevention Grants Program, with a discussion of its key principles, program structure and grant award process, implementation stages, capacity-building components, and national evaluation strategy.