Prevention Versus Intervention

Crime prevention refers to efforts to prevent delinquency from occurring before a crime has ever taken place, whereas intervention is focused on preventing future crime by those who have previously engaged in delinquency activities. Most crime prevention programs are operated outside the formal criminal justice or juvenile justice system. This entry discusses both crime prevention and correctional interventions, research on their effectiveness, and conclusions scholars have drawn regarding prevention versus intervention.

Crime Prevention

Crime prevention may be categorized into three systems. First, developmental crime prevention programs target individual risk and protective factors that are known causes of delinquency. One type of crime prevention is early childhood programs such as preschool education and home visits, which attempted to improve the child’s education and parenting. Other programs focused on ...

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