engleski

Social-Criminal Prevention Programmes for Juveniles

Main purpose of every prevention programme is to prevent children and juveniles from becoming a criminal offender in the future, but the benefits from an effective prevention of juvenile delinquency are much wider because it influences not only the lives of juveniles and their families who are participating in the programmes, but it also improves the quality of life for the whole community. Prevention is promoting a positive lifestyle for juveniles by helping them overcome their problems in different aspects of life (family, peers, school, workplace) and it is also more cost effective for the state to influence the risk factors of a child and his family at an early stage than have to pay for the treatment of that same child when he enters the judicial criminal system. That is why it is necessary that every state develops an effective prevention policy that should become a part of national criminal and social policy in long term. Prevention needs to be focused on the so called children at risk which means that prevention programmes should be used to eliminate the causes of criminal behaviour in child's life and indirectly in his family and community as well. This paper analyzes what are some of the basic principles that have to be taken into consideration when implementing an effective prevention program for juveniles regarding international documents for juvenile offenders (UN, Council of Europe, European Union) and main developments in prevention of juvenile delinquency and also what are some of the prevention programmes that were or are still being implemented in different European countries.

juveniles ; prevention ; prevention programmes ; risk factors

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