Hypothesis testing of program effectiveness for ‘Youth Against Violence’ program
Abstract
Juvenile criminal behaviour can be considered to be one of the most long-lasting problems with severe insinuations for both youth lawbreakers and their relatives all over the world. The source of this issue can be credited to factors such as family collapse, hasty suburbanization and disruptive conduct on the child as a result of their surroundings. This issue has been addressed by the law execution organizations, community societies and the school structures with the objective of shrinking the issue. This study evaluates the efficiency of the Youth Against Violence program which emphases its determinations on decreasing juvenile misbehaviour in the community and assisting the adolescences to meet the pledge situations in order for them to re-enrol in the public schools. The study exploited several independent variables including; parental contribution, gang association and extended family backing which were used to quantify the participants’ discernment of the program.
Research question
Is there a significant relationship between Youth Against Violence program effectiveness and extended family connection, parental contribution and gang connection?
Hypothesis
Over the years, there have been many trends in the reintegration programs for adolescent lawbreakers all over the world. There continues to be many more new and inventive approaches that have been presented to try and help in decreasing the growing problem of adolescent integrity system. Juvenile integrity system can essentially be defined as the system that helps in relating with the children that come into clash with the law (Griffin, 2010). This justice system looks at the appropriate customs, edicts, actions, structures and organizations in order to guarantee that the privileges and the legal precautions of the children are fully valued and also sheltered. The children that are found in clash with the law must always be dealt with to aid in correcting their conducts and this can only be done through specific justice structures where actions that are detailed to their requirements and dimensions are applied within identified rehabilitative podiums inform of programmes. The juvenile criminal rehabilitative prototypes focus on psychoanalysis as well as guiding the lawbreaker with the assumption those intercessions such as probation direction, work willingness, confinement, training and conduct therapy will change conduct and also decrease the occurrence of juvenile wrongdoings (Bradshaw & Roseborough, 2005).
McGuire (2001) defines reintegration programmes for the young criminals as a plan of learning occasions which share much in common with the idea of syllabus in educational scenery. It basically founds a restricted set of actions that have precise purposes and it also entails of a number of intersected features. In a much broader notion, in the criminal justice structure the term program labels creativities such as mentoring systems for the young lawbreakers. The reintegration programs can at times be created to aid in offering legal substitutes for revenue generation for example to help in providing the adolescents with augmented financial chances, specialized training, teaching, augmented role and accountability of local societies in dealing with young lawbreakers and endowment of new places as well as support to help avert the engrossment of the lawbreakers in criminal activities (Lober, Farrington and Petechuk, 2003).
It is important for juvenile felons’ re-entry into the main stream civilization because being assimilated sets the groundwork for them to lead a fit way of life in the community once out of the adolescent integrity system (Bradshaw & Roseborough, 2005). At the same time, some of the rehabilitative approaches usually address individual requirements of the young lawbreakers and its gives them representative choices to make within the society, without having to commit criminal activities again.
The problem with juvenile law-breaking is becoming more complex and the programmes that are intended at their conducts now flourish in almost all organizations. However, these programs are either wrongly facilitated to deal with the contemporary realisms or they are not fully realized. Many countries all over the world have done little to try and deal with these difficulties which have made them inadequate. Even though the programs have been created with the idea of adolescent crime deterrence, the general effects of these programs is slightly weak because the contrivances that are put in place are often insufficient to report the current circumstances.
Independent variables
These variables were selected to regulate whether there is a noteworthy connection between them and the dependent variable and also to comprehend how and why these features affect the efficiency of the program.
- Extended family involvement
This is the degree to which the family members comprising the aunts, uncles, grandparents among others endorse and upkeep the communal, expressive, theoretical and the corporeal comfort of the youths during the contribution of the Youth Against Violence intercession program. During the involvement in the rehabilitative programs, the backing of the family which includes the parentages and the extended family is very imperative because these youths acts as a basis of responsibility, safeguarding the effective conclusion of the program in order to attain school re-entry and also decrease reoffending (Jehl, Martin & McCloud, 2001).
- Parental involvement
This refers to degree to which the parentages of the youth lawbreaker endorse and back the communal, expressive, theoretical and the physical well-being of the youth. And it also refers to the degree of contribution of the parent in the program connected doings including; court presences, workshops among others. When these youths experience support from the parents even after interaction with the law prosecution programs, the efficiency of the program is improved and it becomes more achievable (Jehl, Martin & McCloud, 2001).
- Gang affiliation
The range to which program participants and staff associates identify participants as gang associates and the manner in which this label, affects the program objectives and its consequences. A gang can be defined as any form of organization or association whether formal or informal that engages in criminal activities (Gagnon & Richards, 2008). The individuals can be associated together by a designation, a symbol, an emblem, tattoos, mutual colours or practice of dressing. The culture of gangs does not typically support conforming behaviours such as school turnout and accomplishment or even reception of laws and rules. This research hence looks to determine the relationship that is there between the dependent variable and the gang membership.
Dependent variable
The program effectiveness of the Youth against Violence intervention program is the dependent variable in this study. This is an intercession program that is facilitated by the law execution organization in Atlanta. It works with youth lawbreakers who have either been court ordered as a result of the conditions that are set within the bond agreement, referred by the local district as a result of student in disciplinary issues or has been sent by the parents that have observed wayward behaviour from the youngsters to complete the 8 weeks restoration program.
Problem Statement
The negative implications of unsuccessful re-entry of the youth lawbreakers into schools are far reaching damaging to both the persons and also the civilization at large. This is for the reason that as the youth lawbreakers approach adulthood, the life chances for the individual are greatly influenced by their educational outcomes (Roberts et al., 2004). Contact with integrity structure is compounded by unsuccessful secondary school re-entry and it raises the probability of a challenging adulthood mostly for the minorities that are living within the urban communities. The juvenile lawbreakers’ rehabilitative structures have serious implications on the adolescent’s immediate life and future comfort. The programs include counselling, education, professional training work and communal participation and the emphasis is on helping the youth to grow out of criminal behaviours as they take into account a troubled background or abuse (Gagnon & Richards, 2008).
The programs are meant to help the adolescents to advance on their personal accountability and also proposition them real chances to prosper in genuine professions. The ability of the rehabilitation programs to be beneficial to the juveniles is questionable. The problems with most of the institutions that deal with the juveniles is that they are not well organized and equipped with the necessary resources, qualified personnel, funding and strategic intervention models to help the youths that have come into contact with the adolescent justice system to effectively re-enter the standard society most especially the public schools.
Data collection methods
This study employs a mixed method for the research which includes tenets of the exploratory and also explanatory research design that is coupled with both qualitative and quantitative research methodology. These mixed methods approach was selected because of its ability to provide more insights on the efficiency of the program than either of the programs could be able to provide independently.
The exploratory research design was used to better understand the Youth Against Violence Program and its effectiveness to achieve the intended goals. The programming for adolescent misbehaviour is not really a new concept, the only thing that is unique about Youth Against Violence program is that it is the only program of its kind that is facilitated by the law execution agency for non-detained teens lawbreakers. Using this method was advantages in that it helped shed light on things that are relatively un-researched and also helps the researcher to know if the time, effort and assets that are invested in the study are worth the information that is acquired (Babbie, 2007).
The explanatory research design was also used because it answers how and why a phenomenon exists, but more importantly addresses the dynamics amid independent variable cause and dependent variable effect (Babbie, 2007; Creswell, 2009).
Population of study
The selection of the participants of the study was not random since they were conveniently selected. At the beginning of the 8 week cycle, all the program participants were selected for survey completion which was assisted by the program staff in order to identify a balance participant sample and to avoid overgeneralisation or researcher bias. The participants basically include the staff members that were seven, four males and three females. The interviews were conducted face to face at the police department’s public safety complex. The participant’s also included the adolescents between the ages 12-18 where the majority attended institutes contained in the suburban school district.
The participant’s contact with the law ranged from non-offender, first time lawbreaker to repeat lawbreaker. The gender and race of the participants was not taken into so much consideration. Choosing both the youths and staff members for the study was significant because it aided to understand the inference of the program from both viewpoints which would help understand recommendation for its effectiveness. All the interviews both of the youths and of the staff were documented and written down and later scrutinized to help provide insights on the program during the 8 week intervention program.
Significance of the research
Re-entry programs for the youth lawbreakers are a moderately new phenomenon in the social world. The United States juvenile justice strategy has preferential more punitive tactics to the problem of juvenile law-breaking. The paradigm alteration in the adolescent justice dogma approach has only in recent times braced broad-minded policies that emphasis on interference and reintegration. This study shows that the present reintegration programs for the adolescents mainly include the adolescents being taken through counselling, getting formal education as well getting taught life social skills.
This study helps to show that the whole civilization has a role to play to assisting to reduce youth criminal actions by reassuring the youths and standing by them even when they are on the wrong side of the law. Through the support of the parents and the family at large the recuperation programs like Youth Against Violence program can be operational and help decrease the growing population of adolescent misbehaviour.
References
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Gagnon, J., & Richards, C. (2008). Making the right turn: A guide about improving transition
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Brief statement
Juvenile delinquency is a topic that I very important in the society and that is why I selected it for my study. The young people are the future generation; these are the person that are expected to be the leaders of tomorrow and if they are not modelled and shaped to become responsible people in the society, then the future is in danger. As the young people are growing up, they reach a stage where they become irresponsible and negligent which affects their relationship with other people and they can at this stage find themselves on the wrong side of the law. This is the time that they are forced to deal with legal systems and this is the juvenile justice system that forces them to spend time out of their normal life.
This time can be challenging for them and it can either affect them positively or negatively and this is what determines the kind of people that they grow up to be in the society. The juvenile justice system is meant to help shape the young person to become a more responsible citizen but this is not always the case. Most of the young people that go through the juvenile delinquency programs do not change their behaviours; most of them become worse and they end up not able to re-enter and cope in the normal education system like they are supposed to. This can be attributed to the inefficiency of these rehabilitative programs including lack of support from family, affiliation with gangs and also lack of effective counselling which makes it hard for the youths to cope and become better individuals.
I chose this topic because I want to understand why the programs are not effective like they are supposed to be and ways that they can be made to be more effective in their objective.
