The 2008 UK government "Youth Crime Action Plan" emphasises prevention and early intervention in different aspects of work with young people who offend or are considered to be 'at risk' of offending. Much of this approach includes targeted work with families and work to reduce the numbers of young people entering the youth justice system. This report takes a critical look at early intervention policies.Through contributions from leading experts on youth work and criminal justice it: considers the development of integrated and targeted youth support services and the implications for practice of early intervention policies; analyses the causes of serious violent crime through consideration of issues that address gangs and guns; provides an evaluation of the government's early intervention strategy through the examination of its Sure Start programme and other family initiatives; identifies the psychobiological effects of violence on children and links them to problem behaviour; considers the impacts of family intervention projects and parenting work; and, compares approaches to early intervention across different jurisdictions and examines the lessons for practice in England and Wales.
Author(s): Maggie Blyth, Enver Soloman
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 136
Prevention and youth crime......Page 2
Contents......Page 4
Foreword......Page 5
Acknowledgements......Page 6
List of abbreviations......Page 7
Notes on contributors......Page 8
Introduction......Page 12
The early intervention agenda......Page 13
The earlier the better?......Page 14
Targeted versus universal provision......Page 15
Coercive engagement: the criminalisation of social policy?......Page 17
A new dawn for youth crime prevention?......Page 18
Introduction......Page 20
Youth work, youth justice – brief and biased histories......Page 21
A commitment to prevention and targeted youth support......Page 22
Defining ‘need’ and the appropriate response......Page 23
Learning the art of patience......Page 24
Thinking sensibly......Page 25
Ultimately it is about practice, not strategy......Page 26
Conclusion......Page 27
Why here? Why now?......Page 32
The neighbourhood effect......Page 34
Alternative cognitive landscapes......Page 36
Stemming the flow: the neighbourhood as a site of intervention......Page 37
Employment and enterprise......Page 41
Conclusion......Page 48
Introduction......Page 52
What are family intervention projects?......Page 53
Parenting interventions: what works, for whom and in what circumstances?......Page 56
Discussion and conclusion......Page 60
Introduction......Page 64
Social exclusion and its reproduction......Page 65
Sure Start and early intervention......Page 66
Outcomes and lessons......Page 68
The developing conceptualisation of social exclusion and policy consequences......Page 71
The (re)appearance of the problem family......Page 72
Sure Start and the transformation into children’s centres......Page 75
Conclusions......Page 76
5. Attachment research and the origins of violence: a story of damaged brains and damaged minds......Page 80
Violence begets violence......Page 81
Caregiver–infant attunement within a secure attachment......Page 85
The laying down of future templates of attachment behaviour......Page 86
Wounds of the mind in children who have been abused......Page 87
Prevention based on a model of violence as a disease......Page 92
Conclusions......Page 94
Introduction: ‘risk’, prevention and early intervention......Page 100
Early intervention and the ‘new youth justice’......Page 101
Knowledge-based critique......Page 104
Concluding thoughts......Page 110
International norms......Page 116
Crime prevention and social welfare......Page 117
Family programmes......Page 118
Education programmes......Page 119
Community programmes......Page 121
Conclusions......Page 123
Conclusion......Page 126
Avoiding unintended outcomes......Page 127
Places, not cases......Page 128
An effective workforce......Page 129
Where next?......Page 130
