Whether good or bad, neighborhoods have lasting adverse effects on multiple areas of a child and adolescent’s development. Beyond individual and immediate family factors, the effects of neighborhoods in children are present academically, psychologically, developmentally, and socially. Neighborhoods that are disadvantaged, with high poverty or other negative factors, have higher rates of school dropout, delinquent and conduct behaviors, and social relationship difficulties among adolescents than well-off neighborhoods. If I had a $10 million grant to design and implement an intervention program for disadvantaged neighborhoods, I would like to reduce the delinquent and antisocial behaviors in children and adolescents by creating a mentorship …show more content…
I would like my mentors to have different backgrounds in order to understand and relate to the different personalities and living conditions of the mentees. These mentors would also be responsible for developing academic and life skills with the kids through after school activities such as tutoring, sports, arts, and basic life workshops. By having multiple activities for different interests, the mentorship program would help children find an interest and passion for outside activities away from delinquency. I would also initiate creative programs to teach basic conduct skills beyond the classroom, such as respect and responsibility through dance classes. These programs would help grasp the children’s attention without having them simply sitting in a classroom. However, the major component of my mentorship program would be a center that focuses on the current social struggles occurring within the community, such as poverty or discrimination against People of Color. With this center, the mentees would be able to gain knowledge about a specific social struggle and apply its characteristics to their own life. The goal of this center is to allow adolescents to open up, relate with each other, and learn how to live or surpass their struggles. The center would also have resources to help adolescents with their problems, whether it is legal counseling or food stamps for groceries. Using all these factors, my intervention program would guide and create a stable support system for the children and adolescents in disadvantaged
...will be seen right away, for example the link between socioeconomic status, as well as between housing and delinquent behavior. The advantage of using this study design is that it can show protective factors that might deter delinquent behavior. If a student has a greater commitment to school they are less likely to have incidents with criminal behavior, or show less of a desire to associate with peers who commit specific criminal behavior. As a result of using the analysis, risk and protective factors could serve as basis for research in the future. In addition, interventions based on imparting strategies for coping could be developed. There is still much work to be done to fully explain why youths commit crimes, but this study will help gain insight and understanding of the ways that specific factors influence various types of violent and nonviolent delinquency.
Shaw, C. R., & McKay, H. D. (1969). Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas (Revised ed.). University of Chicago Press.
Students that have been labeled “delinquent” need help in beating the odds to become successful adults. As C. Ogletree discusses article, Total Reform for a Broken System, a program needs to be created that includes family involvement and support to create concrete goals and means for students to achieve them, in the aim of becoming successful students throughout each school until graduation. It is a great goal for school institutions to strive in changing students’ behavior for the better, giving them a fair opportunity in education. Not to single out those of low-income homes, race, or learning disabilities. It should be the goal to get to the heart of misbehavior that is introducing so many students into the juvenile justice system. School institutions need to be place of supportive and structured learning from day one. Students enter school as young children, for the first time away from parents, relying on educators to guide them throughout their day. School Institutions should look for a positive approach that emphasizes on individual strengths to promote learning. The restorative circles program is having been introduced into school systems as an alternative to the zero tolerance policies. It creates an involvement of communication between all parties in any issue. Whether it be good or bad, it offers support for students to discuss issues and ideas, opening a line of communication between parents, teachers, and students, which will be key a student’s
In Tama Leventhal and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn’s article characteristics of neighborhood is depicted by its SES and show how each neighborhood is measured differently. For example, previous non-experimental research of how neighborhoods affect children and adolescent development revealed that high SES correlates with income, percentage professionals, and percentage of residents who are college educated; low SES correlated with poverty measures that are connected to percentage of households headed by females, percentage on public assistance, and percentage unemploye...
Neighborhoods are comprised of communities of people who are closely related by either birth, heritage, clan, culture, tribe, or ethnic identity or language. Neighborhoods arose due to humanistic natural desires to socialize, associate and form relationships with others humans. The formation of a neighborhood is done to preserve their unique sense of identity, culture, cherished traditions, and common values. However, affordability is a huge element in determining the type of neighborhood a person might live, grow up and rear children. Choosing a neighborhood that will help foster positive, healthy children’s development is very important. A neighborhood that will help shield the child, help nourish positive growth and foster good education
...s between those who are “at risk” with teachers, pastors, and officers of the law. The construction of the bond is essential. The neighborhoods youth understanding their teachers, principles, and law enforcement officials have their best interests at heart, allows for these individuals to recognize they can accomplish any goal they set. Once a foundation, is built amongst the schools, city officials can address other areas of concern in these neighborhoods. For example, establishing a “community development plan” with local residents to earn an income while demolishing abandoned buildings within these communities. Providing developmental land for these neighborhood. Each step is necessary, however without a solid foundation with emphasis on youth and education, areas such as these will continue to witness large amounts of crime and the depletion of their community.
A number of studies conducted suggest mentoring has taken the lead as the most sought after form of intervention for high risk youth (Miller, Barnes, Miller, McKinnon, 2013; Allison, K. W., Edmonds, T., Wilson, K., Pope, M., & Farrell, A. D., 2011; Spencer, R., Collins, M. E., Ward, R., & Smashnaya, S. 2010; Williams, 2011). Such programs are devoted to reducing risk (Allison et al., 2011) of youth violence, reentry, and delinquency ( Williams, 2011).Though mentoring methods have been the focus of recent research, there is many gaps left in current literature that proclaim more study is needed (Miller et al., 2013) in order to inform programs, and researchers regarding effective methods.
Transitioning from being a child to an adult brings challenges that some handle well and others have considerable trouble with. The amount of child delinquents between the ages of 7 and 12 inside the system has jumped 33 percent within a ten year period. This information raises red flags and sets of alarms inside the juvenile system because younger offenders of serious crimes are more likely to repeat their offenses. The likelihood of a child delinquent between the ages of 7 and 12 to become a serious offender is two to three times higher than delinquents in their teens (Flores, Child Delinquency, 2003). Studies addressing school influences on antisocial behavior have consistently shown that poor academic performance is directly correlated with child behavior issues and to the onset of serious delinquency (Brewer et al., 1995; Maguin and Loeber, 1996). The increase in school shootings and violence by kids inside their own places of learning shows the validity of the studies. Schools are looking for a more positive way to enforce discipline. Suspension and expulsion are proving to be a far less effective way of invoking discipline for juveniles. The time away from schools results in kids having more free time on their hands with nothing constructive or educational to do. This causes the juveniles involve themselves in criminal activities that usually begin petty, but after time the offenses increase in magnitude. Schools with very little teacher cooperation and poor teacher satisfaction ratings are linked to antisocial behavior in kids. The community plays a very important role in the development of juveniles as well. Poverty levels inside the community cause the development of antisocial behavior.
Flaxman, E. Evaluating Mentoring Programs. New York: Institute for Urban and Minority Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1992.
Many adolescents drop out of school because they have to help work to help support their family, pregnancy, or these schools are not easily accessible. Poverty also affects a child’s social-emotional development. Children living in poverty are often times living in households that are noisy, overcrowded, or unsafe. Many children do not know how to deal with these stressors and can cause emotional issues within the child. High stress, anxiety, depression, and negative behaviors are among the issues that emerge from these stressors. (Aber Morris & Raver, 2012) In addition, families are often unable to afford or have the time to take their children to socially enhancing programs. These programs could include clubs, sports, libraries, parks, etc. These programs are great outlets of the stress they are facing at home and in their day-to-day life, when children do not have these they typically will turn to their friends or peers. In low-income neighborhoods, there is a lot of crime and violence; many children who turn to their friends or peers can become involved with delinquent
Kalff, A. C. (2001). Neighborhood level and individual level SES effects on child problem behaviour: a multilevel analysis. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 55(4), 246-250.
According the Rogers (2013), there are causal factors at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels that can lead youth to engage in delinquent activity. At the micro level, the factors that predict delinquency involve: being male, low educational achievement, low impulse control, childhood aggression, antisocial behavior, and hyperactivity. At the mezzo level, family conflict, lack of family support and appropriate discipline, and negative peer pressure can be risk factors for juvenile. On a macro level, youth that live in poverty or in high-crime urban neighborhoods, and are exposed to violence at home and in their neighborhoods, have a higher risk of engaging in delinquent behaviors. Many poor urban communities often lack adequate schools, which can lead to poor academic performance and students disconnecting from
Each year hundreds of thousands of teens are arrested for committing criminal offenses. For many adolescent, juvenile delinquency is just something that comes with growing up but for some it becomes a cycle that continues until their adult years. Juvenile delinquency not only effect the offender themselves but it also places a burden on society as well. Among the most abundantly stated causal factors of juvenile delinquency is broken homes. The relationship between a parent and child have been explored by countless amounts of researchers. “Children in disadvantaged families that have few opportunities for legitimate employment and face a higher risk of social exclusion are overrepresented among offenders” Juvenile
If a child is raised in a good neighborhood they are likely to be raised well. Children in a good environment are likely to have a better attitude and behavior. Especially when it comes to schooling. They will do well in school and those school systems are likely to have a higher rate of graduating children and children who actually take their education seriously. Better neighborhoods are known to lead to higher test scores. Making sure that a child has a safe, clean, peaceful and comforting environment is necessary and important for your child’s development. Growing up in a bad neighborhood where children aren’t putting school as a main priority and concerned about getting a good education may rub off on a child as they follow one another not put there education first. If a child is raised in a bad neighborhood where there area has a lot of criminal activity and gangs it may influence the child towards joining ...
Many individuals believe that the neighborhood defines who they are, shapes them as a person and has an impact on their life. Throughout my childhood I would hear the saying “It takes a village to raise a child.” Society feels a child has the best ability to become a healthy adult if the entire community takes an active role in contributing to the rearing of the child. I do agree based on the neighborhood environment a child is raised; it does have an impact on their life. For example, society classifies each neighborhood differently such as low-income neighborhood, middle-income neighborhood and high-income neighborhood. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics(BJS2008-2012), persons in poor households at or below the Federal Poverty Level