Describing A Community-Based Program To Curb Juvenile Delinquency (Research Paper Sample)

Community-Based Program to Curb Underage Drinking
Name
Institution
Introduction
Underage drinking is a serious problem not only to individuals, but also the community as a whole. At the individual level, underage drinking interferes with young people’s decision making, cognitive development and education. At the community level, underage drinking is the precursor to social problems such as crime, larceny, gang cries, and other antisocial behaviors. Most important, underage drinking can ruin young people’s education and consequently, destroy their future lives by denying them the opportunity to improve their career prospects through learning. In this regard, underage drinking is a problem to the youth because it not only promotes delinquent behaviors, but also shifts their attention away from schooling, which is an important process in preparing young people into responsible and productive citizens.
To address the problem of underage drinking in Centervile, I propose a community-based program aimed at limiting minors’ access to alcoholic drinks. The program will involve collaborative efforts between the police, families, schools and the business community to monitor minors’ activities, to educate young people about the adverse effects of alcohol consumption, and ensure that they are not sold alcoholic drinks or exposed to situations that promote drinking.
Goals of the Program
* Encourage parents to monitor their children’s behavior to detect and report cases of drinking
* Provide counseling and educational programs about the effects of underage drinking
* Make schools and homes places of instilling positive and responsible behaviors in young people
* Promote a culture of social corporate responsibility within the business community
* Promote law enforcement to ensure businesses adhere to prohibitions against selling alcohol to the minors.
Theoretical Framework
This program is grounded on sociological theories of juvenile delinquency, which identify social factors and processes are the influencers of human behavior (Vito, et al., 2005). Unlike psychodynamic and biological models, sociology goes beyond individual traits to explain human behavior. The central tenet of sociological theories is that the social environment shapes human behavior by determining the kind of moral values and societal norms that individuals learn and internalize. For instance, a predominantly religious community can promote strong moral values in its members, such as abstinence from alcohol consumption and sexual activities before marriage. In this regard, sociological theories place emphasis not on individuals’ innate behavior traits, but on the role that the social environment of their upbringing instills values that influence behavior.
In adopting this theoretical framework, the program is based on the assumption that the social environment in Centervile is primarily responsible for the high rates of underage drinking. It assumes a breakdown of social order as a result of social institutions such as the family, the police and business community failing in the respective responsibilities not only in promoting social order, but also in their ethical and moral obligations. For instance, the prevalence of underage drinking suggests that the business community is motivated by corporate greed for profit to the extent of condoning the sale of alcohol to minors. Secondly, it suggests weaknesses in the family unit as parents are unable to instill positive values in their children. On its part, the police may be guilty of laxity in enforcing law and order such that there are no deterrents against businesses selling alcohol to minors, or minors frequenting alcohol joints such as bars and clubs. Sociological theories identify such negative aspects of communities and society at large as structural inducements that encourage young people to engage in juvenile delinquency. The goal of the intervention program is to address these negative aspects by encouraging families, schools, the police, and the business community to take responsibility in ensuring that minors do engage in alcohol consumption.
One of the most influential sociological theories that is relevant to the proposed intervention program is the Social Disorganization Theory advanced by sociologists Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay in 1942 (Vito, et al., 2005, p. 148). Shaw and McKay suggested that juvenile delinquent behaviors were influenced by individuals’ neighborhoods. They arrived at this conclusion by studying the kinds of neighborhoods that created social conditions favorable to antisocial behaviors. After dividing Chicago into five zones, with the downtown business district as the center, followed by the ring of factories and beyond that, places of vice such as gambling and prostitution. They discovered that juvenile delinquency decreased as one moved away from the center of the city. The first two zones attracted criminal activities because property values were high, therefore presenting incentives for cases like theft. The two theorists also noted that Chicago neighborhoods that exhibited high juvenile delinquency rates remained so even years later after new residents moving in. They interpreted this trend to conclude that the social conditions of neighborhoods create an environment favorable to juvenile delinquency.
This model suggests that underage drinking can be addressed by creating social conditions that discourage juvenile delinquency. This can be achieved by promoting moral values at the family and community level, and ethical values in business practices. In addition, learning institutions can play the role of reinforcing family values and responsible behaviors by offering guidance and counseling programs. The police will act as a watchdog by ensuring that businesses enterprises selling alcoholic drinks do not admit or sell to minors. In addition, public presence and conspicuous visibility of the police will help to create deterrence against unscrupulous businessmen selling to minors, or minors frequenting prohibited social places.
Program Implementation
At the Family Level
As the basic unit of society, the home is the first social environment that shapes individuals’ behaviors. For example, children can learn from their parents certain behaviors such as smoking and drinking, a process that Albert Bandura describes in his theory of social learning as “model imitation.” In this regard, parents will be required to be good role models by avoiding taking alcohol in the presence of their children, coming home drunk, or bringing alcohol into the home. At the same time, parents will be required to teach their children responsible behaviors, such as abstinence from alcohol.
At the Community Level
The community level will play a critical role because it represents the social environment that encourages juvenile delinquency. It is the context in which underage drinking takes place, and therefore an important component of the intervention program in with respect to the need to change the social environment from one that condones this phenomenon.
The Role of the Business Community
Businesses will be challenged to develop and implement corporate social responsibility policies aimed at making marketers of alcoholic beverages morally and ethically respons...