Juvenile delinquency prevention

In San Antonio, Texas, local mentoring efforts are making a difference, thanks to the Mentoring for Youth Initiative of Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas.  The initiative strengthens local mentorship through collaboration with other local mentor-based programs to reduce delinquency, drug abuse, truancy and other high-risk behaviors.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Matt Dummermuth visited...

Jakeem Everett was 11 years old when members of a Fort Pierce, Florida, gang began to ensnare him.  An A student who attended church faithfully with his mom and six siblings, he was an unlikely candidate for gang involvement.

"I got tired of being picked on," Jakeem, now 21, says.  "So I started hanging out with these kids in a gang known as the...

As a police officer in the gang unit of the Dallas, Texas, Police Department, Christy Chamberlain sees young people caught in the grip of delinquency nearly every day. She has encountered juveniles as young as 12 who are involved in all types of crime. Even murder. One who stands out in her memory is a middle schooler who repeatedly broke into cars. Then one day...

There is no single definition of a gang, but there are a number of widely accepted criteria for classifying groups as gangs (Decker and Curry, 2003; Esbensen et al., 2001; Klein, 1995; Miller, 1992; Spergel, 1995). This review used the following criteria: (1) the group has three or more members, generally aged 12-24; (2) members share an identity, typically linked to a name and/or symbols...