OJJDP Strategies to Address Serious Juvenile Crime - Essay Sample

Introduction

The office of juvenile, justice, and delinquency prevention (OJJDP) has identified some strategies that can be used to deal with serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. The approach can be implemented in the states, county, and local levels. The program was started as a result of the increase in serious, violent, and juvenile crimes among youths. The principles that guide the OJJDP initiative include strengthening families, offering support to core social institutions, and promoting prevention strategies, which will reduce the risk factors that encourage the youths to join the gangs.

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The OJJDP believes that families have a responsibility to ensure that moral values are instilled and provide guidance to the children (Perez et al.) In a situation where there is no family, then society is responsible for ensuring that the child is guided and nurtured with the right morals and values. Also, when the schools, religious places such as churches and other community organizations should be supported as they help bring out capable, mature, and developed youths. The social institutions also ensure that the children gain the support they need in life to become law-abiding citizens in their communities. The principle of promoting delinquency preventions supports the policy of supporting social institutions. They should be encouraged to help the families

The program will offer a variety of protective buffer programs that will help reduce the number of youths being involved in the illegal activities that cause them to be restricted in the juvenile facilities. The OJJDP program used a group of teens who had earlier been found guilty of different offenses. After being interviewed and observed for a period, it was noted that most children were not nurtured during their childhood. It was also pointed out that others did not have a chance to attend the social organization, and their parents were not there to nurture them. As a result, the joined youth gangs that helped them access drugs and engaged in crimes.

The OJJDP officials concluded that unless the above-stated principles are implemented, then cases of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders will continue to increase. Both the families and the societies should be on the front line to ensure that the children grow to adapt to the moral values that will make them become responsible citizens. If all the strategies are not implemented, then cases of juvenile offenses will not reduce. Also, through families and social organizations, those who have been in the juvenile facilities will have people that will nurture them and accept them back in society.

Response

I agree with the program that the OJJDP has begun. Most children indeed lack the motivation and the presence of an adult to nurture them to be responsible adults and citizens. Once the parents' guide their children, they help them differentiate between right and wrong, thus improving their moral values. Most families do not have the love that a family is expected to possess, which makes the children seek love from youth gangs that end up ruining their lives.

The youth are young adults who have less experience with life hence the reason they need to nurture. The same way a tree is watered and takes care of while growing the same way, the youths should be protected and guided. I also agree that society is responsible for nurturing teens. The children do not have to be related to an individual for the adult to guide them. All the youths need in our society is to be guided and nurtured to become law-abiding citizens. Also, those who have been victims before need to be protected loved and steered to avoid them going back to the juvenile facilities.

Work Cited

Perez, Nicholas M., Wesley G. Jennings, and Michael T. Baglivio. "A path to serious, violent, chronic delinquency: The harmful aftermath of adverse childhood experiences." Crime & Delinquency 64.1 (2018): 3-25.