EARLY INTERVENTION CAN KEEP HIGH-RISK BOYS OUT OF TROUBLE

It Is Better to Spend the Money Now Than Spend It Later on Prisons

Law-and-order enthusiasts like members of the Harper government
invariably end up tackling the problem of criminality at the wrong
end. They want results, which to them means spending money on policing
and prisons. They persuade themselves that automatic sentences of
increasing severity will be dissuasive, even though there is little
proof of this. Prevention, worth its weight in gold in crime-fighting,
is somehow not muscular enough to take to the voters. And yet research
continues to suggest that prevention is - dollar for dollar - the
right way to go.

Even more important, prevention can spare people the pain of lives
compromised by failure and wrongdoing. Very few people ever grow up
wanting to be a criminal or an illiterate drop-out; if they could
avoid being either, they would.

Ground-breaking research out of Montreal has shown that intensive
intervention in childhood can have a far-reaching influence in the
lives of boys. In study published last week in the British Journal of
Psychiatry, researchers with the Universite de Montreal found that
early intensive intervention among boys at high risk of anti-social
behaviour can lead to greatly improved educational achievements and a
much reduced probability of having a criminal record.

More than 15 years ago, a group of 895 boys was selected from among
Kindergarten pupils in a poor, inner-city Montreal neighbourhood. Two
hundred and fifty of the boys were identified as disruptive and
aggressive. This group was divided in two, with one half receiving
intensive intervention and the other half no intervention. The
remaining 645 boys served as a low-risk comparison group.

Interventions, which were spread over two years, were aimed at the
boys, their parents and their teachers. The boys, ages 7 to 9, were
taught how to resolve conflict without resorting to violence. Parents
were helped to set clear, reasonable limits and to use positive
reinforcement, steering well clear of what Rachel Boisjoli, lead
author of the study. described as "abusive punishment."

The findings were categorical: The program benefited both the boys and
society at large. The boys in the intervention group were twice as
likely to finish high school as those who received no help and half as
likely to have a criminal record. The effects of the prevention
program put the boys who had gone through it on the same level as the
boys who had been judged to be at low risk for problems in later life.

"We deliberately chose boys from a very disadvantaged neighbourhood,"
Boisjoli said. "Risk factors accumulate in poor, urban neighbourhoods.
People tend to have a lower educational level, they work at jobs that
are poorly paid, the neighbourhood is poor and there are higher levels
of criminality and mental-health problems."

Two important conclusions can be drawn from the study: One is that
early disruptiveness and aggression (which shows up in small children
as a lot of biting and hitting) is a strong predictor of later
educational and social problems. The other is that an early, intensive
prevention program can to some degree successfully counteract the
effects of a difficult home and social environment.

"It is not always a question of the environment alone," Boisjoli said.
"More and more the temperament or personality a child is born with is
seen as a very important part of the equation."

Frederic Simard was one of the boys from inner-city Montreal who took
part in the prevention program and today attributes his success and
happiness in life to that program. In an interview with the Journal de
Montreal, Simard, an aeronautics worker, said that he was so
disruptive as a child that "there were even people who said that
Ritalin was invented because of me."

Boisjoli argues that more is needed to help youngsters from difficult
environments overcome the accumulated risk factors. Even among the
group that benefited from intervention, only 46 per cent had graduated
from high school by age 24 and a rather sizeable 22 per cent had
accumulated a criminal record.

More should be done in children's lives before they start school,
Boisjoli said. Another critically important element is to tutor any
child who is struggling with schoolwork.

Intensive, supportive interventions work, Boisjoli said. We know that
now and if there is one message politicians and other authorities
should pay attention to, it's that programs like this should be become
the norm. Better them than prison.