What are the Preventive programmes of the Juvenile Delinquency?

Preventive programmes of the Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile delinquency being mainly an urban phenomenon, both private and public agencies has to be involved in delinquency prevention, keeping in mind the complexities of the urban society.

The three approaches to delinquency prevention are: (1) organising activities that contribute to healthy personality development and adjustment of children, (2) controlling environment of children contributing to delinquency, and (3) organising specific preventive services for children.

The first approach links delinquency prevention to (i) general improvements in the institutional structure of the society, for example, family, neighbourhood, school, etc., (ii) helping the poverty-stricken families in getting cheap rations and clothes, etc. from the licensed shops, (iii) providing job opportunities to children in institutions where they are not exploited, (iv) establishing schools, (v) improving job conditions, (vi) providing recreational facilities in neighbourhoods, (vii) improving marital relations through family counselling services and family social work, and (viii) imparting moral and social education in schools.

Preventive activities of the second type also include community organisation, welfare efforts and child-care agencies, etc. Preventive activities also include probation and parole services, Certified and Borstal Schools, Children Homes, Probation Hostels and so forth.

The preventive programmes have been classified as (Trojanowicz, 1937: 188) (1) pure prevention or primary prevention, which attempts to inhibit delinquency before it takes place, and (2) rehabilitatiye prevention or secondary prevention, which deals with youngsters who have been adjudicated delinquents by the courts.

Peter Lejins (1967: 3) has classified the prevention programmes as: (1) punitive prevention, (2) corrective prevention, and (3) mechanical prevention. The first is the threat of punishment based on the idea that punishment will forestall criminal acts; and second refers to an attempt to eliminate potential causes before the criminal behaviour actually takes place; and the third emphasises placing obstacles (like increased security measures or increased police protection) in the way of the potential criminal so that he will find it difficult to commit an offence.

The agencies concerned with the prevention of delinquency between the 1950s and the 1999s in India are voluntary children’s organisations administering child welfare and schools, social welfare departments, rescue homes, orphanages, psychiatric centres, and so on. The efforts of voluntary organisations are less coordinated, while those of government departments are more planned and systematically organised.

An overview of the functioning of the government institutions (Children Homes, Certified Schools, etc.) for ‘rehabilitative prevention’ has been given in the earlier pages. We may briefly discuss here the ‘pure prevention programmes’.

The most important areas where the government needs to take up some measures like providing educational, recreational, and vocational training facilities for preventing delinquencies are the slum areas in cities. A big chunk of population lives in slums in urban areas.

If theories propounded by Thrasher, Shaw and McKay, Cohen, and Cloward and Ohlin, etc., regarding the learning of delinquencies from environment and lack of neighbourhood cohesiveness have some justification, it is necessary that the government take up some measures for the welfare of children in these areas and for their better integration into community life.

Family is another institution which needs greater attention. The role of functionally inadequate families, structurally incomplete or broken families, poor families, immoral families and indisciplined families in juvenile delinquency has already been elaborated.

Unless these disorganised families are reorganised, unless environment or milieu therapy is provided, frustrated and emotionally disturbed children cannot be prevented from developing a relationship with delinquents.

Police running recreation units for children is a new concept. Juvenile units in the police department in cities like Mumbai and Delhi have undertaken these tasks. The police-school liaison programme on similar lines will go a long way in removing hostility and mutual suspicion between the police and youngsters, with the police helping teachers in handling problem youth, and by improving the police image in general.

Initiating community programmes for educating youngsters regarding the detrimental effects of using drugs and becoming involved in devious social behaviour is yet another measure in the prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Drug abuse in recent years has increased among school children and slum-dwellers. Providing counseling services to these children experimenting with drugs will be an effective means of combating illicit drug use in particular and juvenile delinquency in general.

Programmes for run-away children also need attention. Homes for these children, to give them a chance to reflect on their own situations, with the assistance and guidance of staff members, need to be established in big cities and towns. These homes can help in promoting positive communication between run-away children and their parents and guardians and resolving serious problems.

It may be concluded that the development of a sound public policy regarding all aspects of delinquency prevention and control needs both planning and evaluation by rigorous research methods. This requires coordination between government agencies (like social welfare department), educational institutions, police, judiciary, social workers, and voluntary organisations.