Stopping the Violence : Creating Safe Passages for Youth / Wanda Brown and Lynn DeLapp.

Youth violence has reached explosive levels in California. California youth have become both victim and aggressor. Between 1988 and 1991, youth homicide rates almost doubled. During the 1988-1989 school year, schools officials reported 69,191 student-to-student assaults and confiscated 5,107 knives and guns. State and federal legislation has focused on penalties for perpetrators rather than on methods of prevention. Although additional public funding has been provided for very young children, children and youth 9-15 years of age have been neglected. Some key factors to youth violence are: being victimized and abused at home; witnessing domestic violence; living in unsafe neighborhoods; enaging in substance abuse; having easy access to guns; watching television violence; and dealing with poverty and high unemployment in their families. Violent behavior is often associated with other problem behaviors. Two California state programs, Healthy Start and the Juvenile Crime Prevention Program, seek to prevent high-risk behavior among older children and adolescents. A focus group of professionals from juvenile justice, law enforcement, community youth programs, and education offers the following approaches to agencies and educational institutions in preventing youth violence and high-risk behavior: (1) develop community schools with integrated services; (2) offer individualized attention to troubled youth; (3) encourage schools and other programs serving youth to implement decision-making and values curricula; (4) make schools safe; and (5) coordinate programs among state agencies. (Includes two appendices explaining legislation, a list of major state programs, and 24 end notes.) (JW)

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