Juvenile crime and delinquency refer to the participation of minors in illegal behaviors (Siegel & Welsh, 2012). Legal systems across the globe have prescribed various procedures to address juvenile crimes and delinquency, including courts and juvenile detention centers. Juvenile crimes and delinquency affect parents, teachers, families, and neighbors. It also affects the crime victims, bystanders, and the perpetrators. Currently, delinquency rates are too high, but they have been decreasing because various countries have implemented prevention programs (Siegel, 2011). Various prevention programs focus on the psychological, biological, and sociological factors that lead to juvenile crimes and delinquency (Karoly, Kilburn, & Cannon, 2005). This discussion will consider the Head Start, and Prenatal and Early Childhood Nurse Visitation programs as the two prevention programs, which have been effective in addressing juvenile crimes and delinquency.
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Head Start and Prenatal and Early Childhood Nurse Visitation Programs are comprehensive and aim at early intervention (Karoly, Kilburn, & Cannon, 2005). The Head Start program focuses on the psychological and biological factors because it offers comprehensive education, nutrition, and health services to children in low-income families. Prenatal and Early Childhood Nurse Visitation Program improves the social and health functioning of mothers and children in low-income families. Therefore, this focuses on the sociological, biological, and psychological factors. Both of the two programs show incredible outcomes by targeting risk factors that result in delinquent behaviors (Karoly, Kilburn, & Cannon, 2005). They focus on general and holistic aspects of the lives of children and adolescents, which is not the case with other prevention programs (Sexson 2005). Therefore, these programs aim at lessening the risk factors to ensure that the problem behaviors have a reduced likelihood of taking place.
Therefore, juvenile justice prevention programs like the Head Start and Prenatal and Early Childhood Nurse Visitation programs are extremely successful at preventing crimes for adolescents and children involved. This is because the prevention programs take place early during the development a child, as well as focus on general and holistic aspects of the lives of adolescents and children rather than concentrating on the crimes that they cause (Sexson 2005).