Youth Programs and
Contemporary Issues in Policing
William L. Mizner
Chief of Police
Norfolk, Nebraska
Introduction
• Maintaining Awareness
• Youth Programs
– Need
– Types
• Contemporary Issues in Law
Enforcement
Understanding Current
Problems
• Must prioritize use of limited resources
• Must be responsive to issues of concern
in community
• Must help educate the community on
issues
Keeping Current
• Publications
– Association Publications
• Police Chief magazine
• Sheriff magazine
– Trade Journals
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FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin
Law and Order
Law Enforcement News
Law Enforcement Technology
Keeping Current
• Internet Sources
– IACP Net
– Department of Justice
– Regional Community Policing Training
Institute
Assessing the Future
• Plan ahead
– Tactical Planning
• Immediate or short-term
– Strategic Planning
• Long-range
• Sources
– Police Futurists International
– World Future Society
– Crime and Criminal Justice in the 21st Century
Reviewing Programs
• Determine the goals
• Determine necessary resources
– Manpower
– Support
– Examine recurring costs
• Evaluate reviews and studies
• Assess if right for your agency and
community
Need for Youth Programs
• Significant amount of crime is committed
by youth
• 1997 Uniform Crime Report juvenile stats
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Third straight decrease in juvenile crime
First decrease in seven years in drug arrests
Violent crime arrests still 49% above 1988 rate
Total crime arrests still 35% above 1988 rate
Drug arrests still 125% above 1988 rate
Need for Youth Programs
• Most gang members are juveniles
• There is a chance behavior can be
changed before the individual reaches
adulthood
Types of Youth Programs
• D.A.R.E.
– Possibly the most popular youth program
• 25,000 trained officers in 44 countries
• Estimated 80% of U.S. classrooms
– $700 - 750 million spent annually
– Studies vary on program’s effectiveness
• 1997 University of Maryland report to Congress
identified D.A.R.E. as one of the programs
which don’t work
Types of Youth Programs
• School Resource Officer Program
– Officer is an educator, counselor and law
enforcer
– Major goal is to build rapport between law
enforcement and youth
Types of Youth Programs
• G.R.E.A.T.
– 2200 officers from more than 900 agencies
– 9-week middle school curriculum
– 4-week fifth or sixth grade curriculum
– Summer project focusing on recreational
activities, outings and community service
projects
– Initial reviews indicate positive impact
Types of Youth Programs
• Law Enforcement Explorers Post
– Joint effort between agency and Boy
Scouts
• Police Athletic League
– Serves 1.5 million boys and girls in 1600
locations
– Emphasizes sports and activities as a
crime prevention effort
Types of Youth Programs
• Mentoring Programs
– Best-known mentoring organization is Big
Brothers / Big Sisters of America
• National operating standards provide a level of
uniformity in recruitment, screening, training,
matching, and supervision of adult volunteers
and youth
• The mentor and youth meet for about four
hours, two to four times a month, for at least a
year
Types of Youth Programs
– 1995 18-month study of eight local BB/BS
programs found mentored youth were:
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46% less-likely to initiate drug use
27% less-likely to initiate alcohol use
Almost 1/3 less-likely to hit someone
Skipped half as many school days
Showed modest gains in grade point averages
Had improved relationships w/ parents & peers
Ten Model Programs
• Center for the Study and Prevention of
Violence
University of Colorado, Boulder
Institute of Behavioral Sciences
Campus Box 442
Boulder, CO 80309-0442
www.colorado.edu/cspv
Big Brothers/Big Sisters of
America
• Targets youth from single parent homes
• Volunteers interact regularly with youth
in a one-to-one relationship
• $1000 per year average cost of making
and supporting a relationship
Bullying Prevention Program
• Targets elementary, middle and junior
high students
• Program outcomes
– Substantial reduction of bullying
– Significant reduction in antisocial behavior
– Significant improvement in class “social
climate
– More positive attitude toward school
Midwestern Prevention Project
• Comprehensive, community-based,
multi-faceted program for adolescent
drug abuse prevention
• Targets early adolescent through late
adolescent youth
• Outcomes
– Up to 40% reduction in daily smoking
– Similar reductions in marijuana use
Midwestern Prevention Project
– Smaller reductions in alcohol use through
12th grade
– Increased parent/child communication
about drug use
• $175,000 minimal cost over a 3-year
period
Quantum Opportunities Program
• Serves disadvantaged adolescents by
providing education, service, and
development activities, as well as
financial incentives, over a 4-year
period from 9th to 12th grade
• Outcomes
– 21% more likely to graduate from high
school
– 26% more likely to receive honor or award
Quantum Opportunities Program
– 26% more likely to attend post-secondary
schools
– 14% less likely to become teen parents
• $2,650 per participant per year
Life Skills Training
• 3-year intervention designed to prevent
or reduce gateway drug use
• Outcomes
– 50% to 70% reduction in tobacco, alcohol
and marijuana use
– 25% reduction in pack-a-day smoking
– Decreased use of inhalants and narcotics
• $7 per student per year
Multisystemic Therapy
• Intensive family- and community-based
treatment that addresses the multiple
determinants of serious antisocial
behavior in juvenile offenders
• Targets chronic, violent or substanceabusing offenders ages 12 to 17 at high
risk of out-of-house placement, and the
offenders’ families
Multisystemic Therapy
• Outcomes
– 25-70% reduction in long-term rates of rearrest
– 47%-64% reduction in out-of-home
placements
– Extensive improvements in family
functioning
– Decreased mental health problems for
serious offenders
• $4500 per youth
Prenatal and Infancy Home
Visitation by Nurses
• Intensive and comprehensive home
visits by nurses during a woman’s
pregnancy and the first 2 years after the
birth of the first child
• Targets low-income, at-risk pregnant
women bearing their first child
• Outcomes
– 79% fewer reports of child abuse or
neglect
Prenatal and Infancy Home
Visitation by Nurses
– 30 months less receipt of Aid to Families of
Dependent Children
– 44% fewer maternal alcohol or drug
problems
– 69% fewer maternal arrests
– 56% fewer arrests of the children
– 60% fewer reports of children running
away
– 56% fewer days of alcohol use by children
• $2800 per family per year
Multidimensional Treatment
Foster Care
• Cost-effective alternative to group or
residential treatment, incarceration, and
hospitalization for adolescents with
chronic antisocial behavior, emotional
disturbance, and delinquency
• Outcomes
– 60% fewer days incarcerated
– Significantly fewer subsequent arrests
Multidimensional Treatment
Foster Care
– Ran away from programs 3 times less
often
– Significantly less hard drug use
– Quicker community placement from more
restrictive settings (hospitals, detention)
• $2691 average cost per youth per
month; average length of stay is 7
months
Functional Family Therapy
• Outcome-driven prevention/intervention
program for youth demonstrating the
entire range of maladaptive, acting out
behaviors and related syndromes.
• Target youth age 11-18
• Outcomes
– Effectively treating adolescents with a
variety of disorders
Functional Family Therapy
– Reduces access and penetration of other
social services by these adolescents
– Reduces further incidents of the problem
– Reduces penetration of the adult criminal
system by the adolescents
– Prevents younger children in family from
penetrating the system of care
• $1350 to $3750 for 12 home visits
PATHS Promoting Alternative
• Comprehensive program promoting
emotional and social competencies and
reducing aggression and behavior
problems
• Targets elementary school children
• Outcomes
– Improved self-control
– Increased ability to tolerate frustration
– Use of more effective conflict-resolution plans
PATHS Promoting Alternative
– Decreased conduct problems
• $15 per student per year for a 3-year
period
Promising Programs
• Fast Track
– Comprehensive and long-term prevention
program that aims to prevent chronic and
severe conduct problems for high-risk kids.
– Strives to increase communication
between child, home and school, enhance
child’s social, cognitive and problemsolving skills, improve peer relationships,
and ultimately decrease disruptive
behavior in the home and at school
Promising Programs
• Perry Preschool Program
– Provides high-quality childhood education
to disadvantaged children to improve their
later school and life performances
• Parent Child Development Center
– Designed to foster relationships between
parents and children
– Provides multi-dimensional help to mothers
become more effective in child-rearing
Promising Programs
• Syracuse Family Development
Research Program
– Bolsters child and family functioning and
affective, interpersonal relationships
through home visitations, parent training
and individualized daycare.
• YALE Child Welfare Project
– Offers team-based, personalized family
support to help disadvantaged parents
Promising Programs
• Intensive Protective Supervision Project
– Removes juvenile offenders from criminal
justice institutions and provides them with
more proactive and extensive community
supervision
• Preventive Treatment Program
– Designed to prevent antisocial behavior of
boys who display early, problem behavior by
providing training to parents and child to
decrease delinquency and substance abuse
Promising Programs
• Project PATHE
– Comprehensive program implemented in
secondary schools that reduces school disorder
and improves the school environment.
• School Transitional Environmental Program
– Seeks to reduce complexity of school
environments, increase peer and teacher support,
and decrease student vulnerability to academic
and emotional difficulties
Critical Issues in Law Enforcement
• Year 2000 Preparation
– Internal
• Computers
• Contingencies
• Personnel
– External
• Relationships
• Disruptions?
• Terrorism?
Critical Issues in Law Enforcement
• Ethics in Law Enforcement
• Growing Immigrant Populations
• Drugs
– War on drugs
– Legalization issue
• Police/Citizen Partnerships
– Community policing
– Citizen advisory boards