NCJ Number
198328
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: January/February 2003 Pages: 61-91
Date Published
January 2003
Length
31 pages
Annotation
Primary and secondary youth violence prevention programs are discussed in this article.
Abstract
In this article, the prevention of youth violence is discussed highlighting differences in primary and secondary violence prevention programs. After detailing alarming trends in youth violence in the past 40 years, including overall increases in youth violence and the declining ages of youthful perpetrators, the authors discuss various theories of youth violence. Following a description of social learning, attribution, resilience, developmental, and eclectic theories explaining the causes of youth violence, this article details youth violence prevention programming arguing that most such programs focus on ways to treat youthful offenders only after violent acts have been committed. Suggesting both primary and secondary approaches for preventing youth violence from occurring, the authors maintain that primary approaches tend to address the reducing of risk factors associated with youth violence by working with all youths within a population, while secondary prevention efforts target individuals who demonstrate pre-clinical manifestations of some type of physical, social, or psychological disorder. After contending that the primary and secondary youth violence prevention programs implemented since the 1980’s are demonstrating promising preliminary results, the authors conclude that youth violence prevention research needs to become more rigorous in order to make lasting impacts on the types and rates of youth violence crimes. Appendices, references