NEW APPROACH TO YOUTH-CRIME LINK

A new approach to reducing the causes of youth crime and drug abuse - based
on community involvement - is the centrepiece of a study by the Australian
Institute of Criminology.

The author of the institute's latest Trends and Issues paper, John
Toumbourou, a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne's Centre for
Adolescent Health, has given the first assessment of a new approach known as
'Communities That Care', or CTC.

The centre is conducting Australia's first large-scale study to measure the
factors leading to adolescents becoming involved in crime and drugs.

It is based on a United States community prevention program that has been
operating in more than 400 communities since 1994, and has been adopted in
Britain and the Netherlands.

CTC is a community-based prevention strategy based on research into the
causes of health and behaviour problems, and it assists local groups to
establish intervention strategies, training and support. Dr Toumbourou said
research was clearly linking the major causes of youth crime and drug abuse
to the experiences young people had while they were growing up, in their
families, schools, peer groups and communities.

'The CTC approach brings local communities together to monitor conditions
and adjust services to maximise the chances for healthy youth development,'
he said. 'In US communities, the CTC program has led to a big increase in
prevention spending, which we dearly need in Australia if we are to
seriously tackle problems of crime, violence and drug abuse.'

Institute director Adam Graycar said identifying the factors that influenced
youth involvement in crime would allow a greater focus on prevention
strategies rather than concentrating resources on policing and punishment.

He said practical methods for effective prevention were needed, and CTC was
one program that had been useful in wide-scale implementation in the US.

Plans are well advanced in Victoria to establish a CTC trial involving
15,000 students.

A smaller pilot program in 1998 involving 468 Year 9 students from 30
schools strongly justified adopting the new approach.

It showed students without the support were more at risk of regular alcohol
and cannabis use or other delinquent behaviour. The trial will be conducted
by a consortium of the Women's and Children's Health Care Network and the
Rotary Club of Melbourne.