Preventing the onset of youth offending : the impact of the Pathways to Prevention Project on child behaviour and wellbeing / Ross Homel, Kate Freiberg, Sara Branch and Huong Le.

Canberra : Australian Institute of Criminology, 2015.

86838

Crime prevention -- Australia.

Crime -- Environmental aspects -- Australia.

Crime -- Social aspects -- Australia.

Juvenile recidivists -- Australia.

There are big gaps in our knowledge about how well civil-society initiatives work, including the effectiveness of family-support services that are often available in socially disadvantaged communities. This paper addresses this knowledge gap through an analysis of data from the child longitudinal database constructed through the Pathways to Prevention Project. - Abstract. The idea has been gathering momentum for 50 years or more that institutions of care such as families or schools are more important in preventing crime than institutions of regulation such as the police. However, there are big gaps in our knowledge about how well civil-society initiatives work, including the effectiveness of family-support services that are often available in socially disadvantaged communities. This paper addresses this knowledge gap through an analysis of data from the child longitudinal database constructed through the Pathways to Prevention Project, a 10 year developmental crime-prevention initiative that operated until 2011 as a partnership between Mission Australia, Education Queensland and Griffith University. A matched groups design and multilevel modelling is used to show that relatively low levels of family support were strongly associated with improvements in teacher-rated classroom behaviour, especially for children of parents who initially reported low levels of parenting efficacy. Low-intensity family support also improved children’s social relationships and capacity for self-regulation. These results underline the potential of family support in disadvantaged areas to prevent youth offending in an economic manner. - Foreword.

Title from title caption of PDF document (viewed on September 7, 2015).

"May 2015".

Includes bibliographical references.

1836-2206

1 online resource (10 pages) : digital, PDF