Abstract
Juvenile crime is the caused by many factors which needed to be dealt with by specific programs. Programs to deal with this situation diversion programs have been implemented in the state of Illinois. Diversion is ‘‘a way of removing young offenders from the juvenile justice system to lead a normal way of life.’’ (Byrium and Thompson, 1996:4:30) The concept of diversion is based on a theory that processing certain youth through the juvenile justice system it may do more harm than good. (Lundma,1937) this is based on the labelling theory which holds that deviance is not inherent in to an act, but in place looks more on the likelihood of the community to see the young offender in negative manner.
Introduction
The problems faced by many communities is juvenile crime The State of Illinois has several programs of diversion to combat this problem which target problem groups and problem areas. The Teen Reach (Responsibility, Education, Achievement, Caring and Hope) Program and the Redeploy Illinois are some of the programs which have been designed to prevent recurrence of crime among juveniles by moving them from the official justice system.
Analysis
The Teen Reach program in Illinois has about 641,975 school age children who are left alone and unsupervised during the hours after school leaving them to the risk of getting caught up in risk taking behaviour. The program provides services to high risk youths between the age groups of 6 to 17. by expanding a variety of choice and opportunities that allow them empower and encourage youths to achieve positive growth and development and improve expectations and capabilities for future success and avoid or reduce risk –taking behaviour.
The Teen Reach program provides early intervention in a child’s life by introducing activities that children at risk can be involved in together with other children. By early intervention children in the age group will learn what is acceptable in society and community and what is not. Under the Reach program, youths are engaged in supervised positive activities which give them alternatives to being on the streets Teen Reach is a community provides intervention that include strong guidance and discipline and avoidance of the likelihood of one getting crime later in life many who have participated in this program have turned their lives around.
Another program by the state of Illinois is Redeploy Illinois which is a program by Berea of Youth Service and delinquent prevention. The program is set up to provide services to youth who are between 13 and 18 and at a high risk of being placed in the department of corrections. The Program works by providing services to youth in their communities, which is done by way of connecting them to many relevant services which is supported in that community and a able to match the particular individual to a variety of services and support within that home community or through individualised assessment. The services are provided in the less limiting way as possible, and can be included in a case management, court advocacy, education assistance, and individual/family/group counselling and crisis intervention. In Illinois most teenagers get into the juvenile just system by getting involved in risk-taking or illegal behaviour that can have devastating consequences in their lives. As a result of the implementation of Redeploy Illinois General Assembly led Illinois on a new course of action in dealing with the needs of delinquency problems in the state which will also save money for the state. The fact that these programs are designed to deal with juvenile delinquency prevention early is key factor to achieve the goals. The most important factor is that these programs involve the parents and the community and the youths involved not a top down situation.
Conclusion
In dealing with divergence programs are the responsibility of both the community and policing agencies. Where the communities have been involved, the programs implemented have known to have worked. The staff in the state of Illinois reported children enrolled in the teen reach program 80% of those who participated had reduced their truancy ,80% showed signs of improvement in academic perfomence,80% reduced violent behaviour and 95% graduated from high school. Illinois had just 14.2% of those who participated re-incarcerated, compared to 57, 4 percent of those who did not precipitate.
Sources
Faulkner, D. (2006).Crime, State and Citizen (2nd ed.).Winchester: Waterside Press. Williams, K.S. (1997).Textbook on Criminology (3rd ed.).London: Blackstone Press Ltd.
Scott, J. (2002).Redeploy Illinois solution to costs of juvenile crime.Retrieved 12 May 2013 from www.sj-r.com//jump-start-Illinois-redeploy-Illinois-solution-to
