Page 80 - Encyclopedia of Nursing Research

CHILD DELInQUEnTS n 47

offenses, with the exception of status offenses and early intervention (71%) was endorsed
and drug use for 75% or more of juveniles. as an effective method to reduce the risk
Interestingly, contact with police increased of future offending (Farrington, Loeber, & C
with age, and boys were more likely than Kalb, 2001).
girls to be contacted by the police for delin- Contemporary theoretical contributions
quency. Children ages 7 to 10 years contacted recognize the complexities surrounding
by police were commonly taken home or to child delinquency and call upon frameworks
a social services agency. However, more than in which multiple factors can be accounted
half of children ages 11 to 12 years contacted for as contributors to outcomes. The world
by police for delinquency appeared in court, of children and adolescents is complex, and
with court dispositions commonly involv- bringing prevention, youth development,
ing fines, community service, restitution, or treatment, and social rehabilitation models
probation. to the interface of the juvenile justice sys-
An approach to treatment has been to tem is challenging. The contributions of the
focus on the needs of children with con- varied models reflect the expertise and per-
duct disorder (CD) or CD symptoms (Burns spectives of individuals, but the most signif-
et al., 2003). CD symptoms include aggres- icant and difficult to achieve are integration
sion toward people and animals, destruction and implementation within the community,
of property, deceitfulness or theft, and seri- which is generally agreed to be the environ-
ous violations of rules (American Psychiatric ment where youth and their families achieve
Association, 2000, p. 98). The focus has been best outcomes.
on children who exhibit CD symptoms The development and testing of
because they are prone to other conditions approaches for translating research findings
such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disor- into effective community prevention ser-
der, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse vice systems is important to achieve reduc-
(Angold, Costello, & Erkanli, 1999), and the tions in the prevalence of youth health and
behavior problems associated with CD are behavior problems (Wandersman, 2003).
often delinquent in nature. The Community Youth Development Study
Lipsey and Wilson (1998) reviewed (Hawkins et al., 2008) is a large-scale com-
200 studies published between 1950 and munity-randomized trial of 24 communities
1995 on the treatment of juvenile offend- across seven states nationally. Referred to
ers and found that the most effective inter- as Communities That Care (CTC), this coali-
ventions for serious and violent juvenile tion-based prevention-operating system uses
offenders were interpersonal skills train- a public health approach to prevention and is
ing, individual counseling, and behavioral designed to increase communication, collab-
programs. Brestan and Eyberg (1998) also oration, and ownership among community
conducted a review of 82 studies of inter- members and service providers. CTC’s prin-
ventions for children and adolescents with cipal strategy focuses on strengthening pro-
CD and found parent–child treatment pro- tective factors that can buffer young people
grams for pre-school-age youth and pro- from problem behaviors and promote posi-
grams that focus on the development of tive youth development (Hawkins & Weiss,
problem-solving skills and anger coping 1985). CTC’s theory of change hypothesizes
among school-age children most effective. that it takes from 2 to 5 years to observe com-
Community care, specifically multisystemic munity-level effects on risk factors and 5 or
system approaches, was at least as effective more years to observe effects on adolescent
as inpatient treatment (Burns, Schoenwald, delinquency or substance use. Early findings
Burchard, Faw, & Santos, 2000). Prevention suggest a slowing of the usual developmental