2. OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders

In 1993, in response to the growing concern about rates of juvenile crime, OJJDP published the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders (Wilson & Howell, 1993) to provide State and local policy makers and practitioners with a research-based framework of strategic responses -- from early prevention through a range of appropriate and graduated sanctions -- that support efforts to reduce juvenile crime and delinquency. The Comprehensive Strategy's framework for combating juvenile crime and delinquency incorporates two principal components: 1) preventing youth from becoming delinquent through the use of both broad-based and targeted prevention strategies, and 2) improving the juvenile justice system response to delinquent offenders through a system of graduated sanctions and a continuum of treatment alternatives that include immediate intervention, intermediate sanctions, community-based corrections, and after-care services. Together, delinquency prevention programs, early intervention, and graduated sanctions provide a "continuum of services" with the goal of both preventing and stopping the progression of delinquent and criminal careers.

OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy promotes a systematic approach to preventing, controlling, and reducing juvenile crime. Drawing on the principles of the public health model, the underlying premise of this strategy is that we must identify the root causes of juvenile crime and delinquency and then implement a range of programs and services to prevent delinquency from occurring in the first place. If offenses still occur, we must use a full range of sanctions to defuse and control the conduct at the earliest opportunity. By addressing the problem of juvenile crime and delinquency from the perspectives of public safety, accountability, and care and concern for every child -- through both prevention and delinquency control -- we can achieve the greatest success in enhancing positive youth development and reducing juvenile crime.

The Title V Community Prevention Grants Program addresses and supports the prevention component of the Comprehensive Strategy's continuum of services. Title V offers a funding incentive to encourage multidisciplinary community leaders to engage in community assessments and to develop comprehensive, collaborative plans to prevent delinquency.

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1998 Report to Congress: Title V Incentive Grants for Local Delinquency Prevention Programs OJJDP Report