NCJ Number
146970
Journal
Criminal Law Bulletin Volume: 30 Issue: 1 Dated: (January-February 1994) Pages: 54-75
Date Published
1994
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Mentoring programs to prevent juvenile delinquency are discussed.
Abstract
This article considers social science studies of the causes of juvenile crime and possible points of intervention. Factors cited in the studies as reflecting some degree of predictability for criminal behavior include personality and environmental factors, lack of strong social bonds, residency in a poor urban neighborhood, low socioeconomic status, and racial minority status, and poor family support structures and environment. The author then discusses mentoring--a form of intervention in which an adult volunteer is paired with a youth in need of adult support, why some authorities look to it as a form of preventive medicine, what claims have been made for mentoring, and to what extent it will be able to live up to these claims. The article then considers the components of an efficient mentoring program, whether mentoring can be implemented on a large enough scale to meet the need for it, and some ways of implementing such a program. The author cites the major problem faced by most mentoring programs is an extreme shortage of volunteers. Increasing publicity about the mentoring program and its effectiveness, offering tangible incentives, tying service in a mentoring program to receipt of financial aid for university attendance or, alternatively, using mentoring service as a means of paying back school loans, and reimbursing mentors for monies spent in connection with the mentoring program are offered as ways to attract volunteers. The author concludes that mentoring, while not a panacea, offers a unique opportunity to lower the juvenile crime rate in a cost-effective manner. 117 footnotes