ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-19 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT SHEPHERD
TWO TEEN-agers barricade a city street and rob motorists as they approach; a 12-year-old runs away from the abuse at home; a high school freshman carries a handgun to school to impress his friends; a pair of 7-year-olds trash a neighbor's home for kicks.
Such cases, and more than 60,000 like them, come into Virginia's juvenile-justice system each year. A great deal of attention is being focused on the rise in juvenile crime in the state, with studies done by the Governor's Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform, the state's Commission on Youth and the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
Next year's General Assembly will be presented with a variety of proposals. Unfortunately, some of the recommendations being put forward appear intended to punish more than protect and to lock up rather than rehabilitate. Under some proposals, more juveniles would be tried and sentenced as adults, more kids would be incarcerated for longer periods of time, and fewer children would be afforded protections like closed hearings and confidential records.
While such changes might make some citizens feel that justice is better served, and might help some politicians claim to be "tough on crime," such measures do not address things that might actually prevent kids from committing crimes in the first place.
A more balanced approach is necessary.
A recent report issued by the American Youth Policy Forum plainly supports this point of view. The forum found that delinquency prevention is an essential element in - and the most cost-effective component of - any strategy for reducing crime.
Researchers have concluded that delinquent and violent behavior are not caused by a single factor. A variety of factors can contribute to delinquency. These include family alcohol or substance abuse, poor parenting skills, abuse or neglect, family conflict and violence, single-parent households, economic deprivation, poor housing, high unemployment, gang involvement and academic failure.
In addition, there is growing evidence that the availability of weapons and high exposure to significant levels of violence in the media may also contribute to later delinquency.
Are children and families facing such imposing conditions doomed to anti-social behavior? Obviously not.
Can at-risk children overcome these conditions and achieve productive lives? Of course they can.
Most children faced with these stresses in their lives do not become delinquents. Furthermore, steps can be taken to address the risks that result in later problems. Long-term prevention programs can obtain documented positive results.
There are long-running prevention and intervention programs operating around the country that have demonstrated great success. Some notable examples include the Perry Preschool Program in Ypsilanti, Mich., the Houston Parent-Child Development Center, and the Syracuse Family Development Research Project.
In Hawaii, the Healthy Start Program has shown promising results. For five years, "home visitors" have met with mothers, starting before or at the birth of a child. The program has prevented child abuse in 99.8 percent of the families identified as high-risk. It is expected that the lower child-abuse rates will translate into lower youth-violence and delinquency rates in the future.
Just as important as prevention, the juvenile-justice system also needs to be based on a series of graduated sanctions. Such sanctions are most effective in dealing with offenders, as are community-based programs that make a difference in the lives of offenders without lengthy incarceration in a large facility.
Unfortunately, Virginia is looking to build more institutions to incarcerate youths. Construction costs alone start at more than $60,000 per bed for the medium-security facility planned for Bon Air outside Richmond.
Peter Greenwood of the Rand Corp. noted recently that:
"There are some juveniles who need to be placed in restrictive settings to protect the community. However, the ultimate choice in youth violence prevention is not just whether some 15-year-old mugger should serve an additional year, at a cost to the public of about $40,000 per year, but whether that same $40,000 might be used to hire two staff to run after-school recreational programs for hundreds of youth, or to hire two caseworkers to work with 40 high-risk youth and their families."
Unless we are prepared to invest resources through prevention in the early years - the playpen - we are going to have to spend significantly more money in the state pen.
Robert Shepherd is a professor of law at the University of Richmond and a member of the State Commission on Youth.
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