JUVENILE CRIME INVESTIGATED

Penn State researchers have teamed up to tackle the problem of
juvenile crime across the state by using new methods to solve an old
problem.

The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) -- which
includes Brian Bumbarger, project director and research associate for
Penn State's Prevention Research Center, and Mark Greenberg, the
center's director -- invested $60 million to fund crime prevention
programs that match the needs of specific communities across the state.

"There are a variety of things that put children and families at risk,
and because there are different causes, there have to be a variety of
approaches as to how we prevent them," Bumbarger said.

Through local prevention coalitions made up of members of the
community, the PCCD collects data on conditions statistically linked
to delinquency based upon in-school surveys, Bumbarger said. With this
data, a profile about the most common risk factors is made, which is
used to select a specific program, he said.

"It's probably very different what's causing violence in a community
in Philadelphia than in a community in State College. It depends on
environment and school structures," Bumbarger said. "Different
programs approach the prevention in different ways, and that's part of
why it's so effective."

Programs implemented by the PCCD include teaching skills like
resisting peer pressure, problem solving, family strengthening and
bullying reduction, Bumbarger said.

Bumbarger explained that while every community is trying to prevent
and reduce juvenile delinquency and drug use, most of what is being
done is not grounded in good research and not necessarily proven to
work. Prevention programs like D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance
Education) and Just Say No, he said, are based on the naivete of teens
rather than a sound theory.

"The D.A.R.E. program tries to prevent drug use by telling children
the harmful health and legal effects of drug use," he said. "For that
approach to work, it would have to mean that the reason kids use drugs
is because they don't know that drugs are illegal or bad for them."

Bumbarger said the PCCD's programs have been successful because of
community involvement and the research behind the programs.

"We're actually teaching skills to deal with problems," he said. "Our
programs don't just tell them to say no; they teach teens how to say
no."